Alfa Romeo F1 Drivers Get First Taste Of The New Tonale

Ahead of their first season driving together, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou got to test the automaker’s latest production vehicle, the Tonale, which is also the first electrified model in the brand’s history.

Bottas joins the team from his former position as a driver for Mercedes’ Formula 1 team, while Zhou is new to the series. The first Chinese driver in the sport’s history, he won the 2021 F3 Asian Championship and came in second place in the FIA Formula 2 Championship the same year.

The Tonale, meanwhile, represents a major shift for the Italian automaker. Revealed on February 8, it’s the first hybrid by Alfa Romeo and the automaker wants it to stay true to its heritage while meeting the challenges of the future. The Tonale is offered solely with electrified internal combustion drivetrains, with the plug-in hybrid variant getting a 1.3-liter engine that drives the front axle while an electric motor powers the rear axle.

Together, the engine and motor deliver 272 hp (275 PS/203 kW) and allow the crossover to hit 62 mph (100 km/h) in 6.2 seconds, while Tte 15.5 kWh battery is big enough to allow the Tonale to go 50 miles (80 km) on electric power alone in the city.

Bottas’ and Zhou’s first drive came on the occasion of a pre-season training camp ahead of the 2022 racing season, whose first Grand Prix is set to take place on March 20, 2022, in Bahrain. Together with Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato, F1 team principal Frédéric Vasseur, and the entire management team, they all worked to sort out the team’s focus for 2022 as well as its strategies and objectives.