Italian motor manufacturer Alfa Romeo has participated multiple times in Formula One. The brand has competed in motor racing as both a constructor and engine supplier sporadically between 1950 and 1987, and later as a commercial partner between 2015 and 2023. The company's works drivers won the first two World Drivers' Championships in the pre-war AlfettaNino Farina in 1950 and Juan Manuel Fangio in 1951. Following these successes, Alfa Romeo withdrew from Formula One.

The company's sporting department, Autodelta, returned as the works team in 1979. This second period as a constructor was less successful than the first.

The Alfa Romeo logo returned to Formula One in 2015, appearing on the Scuderia Ferrari cars. Alfa Romeo became the title sponsor for the Ferrari-powered Sauber team from 2018, and this commercial partnership was increased to a full renaming of the team beginning in 2019. Alfa Romeo did not have any technical involvement with the team, and the company ended its sponsorship of Sauber after 2023 and left Formula One to allow the team to be taken over by Audi from 2026.

 

Based:  Milan, Italy, 1950–1951, 1979–1985

 

Based: Hinwil, Zürich, Switzerland, 2019–2023

184t

The Alfa Romeo 184T is a Formula One car which was used by the Alfa Romeo team during the 1984 and 1985 Formula One seasons.

The car had a 1.5 L V8 turbo engine, which produced around 680 hp at 10700 rpm, was Mario Tollentino's first F1 design, and it used the Alfa Romeo 890T engine.

When Alfa's first turbo engine, the 890T, was introduced in 1983 it had comparable power to the top turbo engines of the time – the 4 cylinder BMW and the Renault and Ferrari V6's which at times saw lead driver Andrea de Cesaris able to mix it with the quicker cars, while fuel was not a factor as in-race re-fuelling was allowed. By 1984 however, the 890T had not only been left behind on power by its rivals but also on fuel economy with the engine struggling to cope with the new regulations restricting the cars to just 220 litres of fuel per race.

It achieved a total of 11 points, all in 1984. The car's best result was at the 1984 Italian Grand Prix, where Riccardo Patrese came 3rd, at teammate Eddie Cheever's expense as the American was running 3rd, but ran out of fuel. The new fuel regulations saw the Alfas mostly uncompetitive in the races as the engine was notoriously hard on fuel consumption. Also, the lack of power saw both Patrese and Cheever having to push their 184Ts harder just to try to keep in touch (more often than not this was a losing battle) and most of the 184T's retirements were due to the unreliability of the engine that the faster running produced, or the cars simply ran out of fuel.

The 184T was replaced for 1985 by the 185T, but the car proved to be uncompetitive so the 184T was brought out of retirement, updated to 1985 regulations and was dubbed the 184TB. The 184TB model would become the last Alfa Romeo car to be raced in Formula One until the manufacturer's return to the sport with the C38 in 2019.

eddie cheever

1984

alfa romeo 890t, 1496 cc, 90° V8, turbo, mid-engine

jacarepaguá circuit, rio de janeiro

Alfa Romeo 184T 1984

c38 2019

The Alfa Romeo Racing C38 is a Formula One racing car designed and constructed by Alfa Romeo Racing to compete during the 2019 Formula One World Championship. It is the first Sauber-engineered car to be badged Alfa Romeo following a team renaming deal struck with Sauber Motorsport AG in February 2019. 

It was Alfa Romeo's first season as a F1 team since 1985. The car was driven by Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi, and made its debut at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix. The car finished 8th in the Constructors' Championship with 57 points, 43 for Räikkönen and 14 for Giovinazzi.

The chassis was designed by Simone Resta, Luca Furbatto, Ian Wright, Jan Monchaux and Nicolas Hennel with the car being powered with a customer Ferrari powertrain.

The C38's engine is a 1600cc V6 engine, with a single turbocharger. The Energy Recovery System (ERS) is accumulated into a battery pack and deployed via a 120 kW electric motor. The C38 has an 8-speed gearbox, 6-piston Brembo brake callipers, and carbon-composite discs and pads from Carbon Industries.

The chassis is a carbon-composite monocoque; the front suspension has double wishbones, with inboard spring and damper units actuated by push-rods; the rear suspension is Multilink, with inboard spring and damper elements actuated by pull-rods. The C38 has OZ wheels and Pirelli tyres.

kimi räikkönen

2019

albert park circuit, melbourne, australia

ferrari 064 1.6 L direct injection V6 turbocharged engine, mid-mounted

Alfa Romeo C38 2019

c42

The Alfa Romeo C42 is a Formula One car designed and built by Alfa Romeo to compete in the 2022 Formula One World Championship. The C42 is built to the new generation of technical regulations, originally intended for introduction in 2021.

The car was driven by former Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas and rookie Zhou Guanyu.

The C42 follows the C41, which in turn follows the C39. The new-generation car had been internally allocated the designation C40 in anticipation of new regulations for the 2021 season. When these were delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new car, the C41, had to be developed based on the C39 for the interim regulations.

Alfa Romeo used push-rod suspension on both the front and rear, in contrast to the push-rod front and pull-rod rear that had become standard in the turbo-hybrid era. The C42 has the shortest wheelbase of any 2022 car. It packages its Ferrari engine much the same as the works team, with wide sidepods featuring cooling louvres over the top. 

Alfa Romeo developed several major components in-house rather than sourcing them from Ferrari as it and its predecessor team Sauber had done since Sauber became a Ferrari customer team in 2010. 

The C42 was the only car to weigh less than the original minimum weight requirement of 795 kg. Several other teams lobbied the FIA to increase the minimum weight, with a compromise reached to raise the minimum weight limit to 798 kg.

The car proved to immediately be more competitive than its predecessors, as the team took a double-points on the car's debut in Bahrain but the car did suffer from reliability issues, both in testing and at the races.

The car used a Ferrari 066/7 1.6 L direct injection V6 turbocharged engine, mated to a Ferrari 8-speed + 1 reverse sequential seamless semi-automatic transmission.

 

valteri bottas

2022

ferrari 066/7 1.6 L direct injection V6 turbocharged engine

bahrain international circuit

Alfa Romeo C42 2022

 

1950-1951

1979

1980-1983

1984-1985

2019

2020-2021

2022

2023

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