Despite the usual result, at Alfa Romeo, which closed the weekend in Turkey, taking home another eleventh place with Antonio Giovinazzi and a twelfth position with Kimi Raikkonen, there seems to be optimism.

Apart from the mistake made by the Italian driver, who did not obey the team radio to swap track positions with his teammate, which would have allowed the team to fight for the points with a faster Kimi Raoikkonen, the team is satisfied with how they managed the strategy during the race and for the race pace that the cars showed.

On the strategy, Xevi Pujolar, Head of Trackside Engineering at Alfa Romeo, commented after the race, explaining to Motorlat and other selected media, how also the risk taken by Aston Martin with Sebastian Vettel, of going out with medium slick tyres on a track that wasn’t yet very dry, has helped them.

"It was very good that someone [Aston Martin] did that, failing," - he said joking - "It was clear for us at that point, that the track was not dry and it wasn't ready for slicks, so we couldn't stick to the plan and we felt the urgency to take action."

"We are happy with the pace we had, but not only with that, also with the way we managed the situation in those difficult circumstances, the calls were correct.

"We are maybe a bit disappointed after that radio call, when we did’t manage to swap positions, but you know after a difficult qualifying session, we recovered during the race."

Saturday's qualifying at Istanbul Park, in the eyes of the less attentive, didn’t seem to be positive for Alfa Romeo, but analyzing the situation, there were many variables that influenced the performance of the cars, including traffic and weather conditions, as Pujolar explained:

“In quali there was traffic, we made mistakes and we just had to push the last couple of laps and that was it, but if you look at the pace during free practice we were there, on Friday we were there, also during FP3.

"This P11 is always frustrating," he said.

Frustration seems to be not lacking in the Italian-Swiss team, even if optimism about race performance filters through, which with the new regulations next year, and another experienced driver like Valtteri Bottas, who will replace the Finnish colleague, could improve even more, and maybe bring the team higher in the standings.