Work in progress for the Alfa simulator, as Kimi and Antonio used Ferrari’s ‘spider’ to prepare race set-ups. Work in progress in Hinwil in Switzerland.

Work in progress in Hinwil (Switzerland) for the Alfa Romeo Racing simulator. As reported by Motorsport Italy, until now Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Räikkönen used Scuderia Ferrari’s spider to prepare race set-ups.

Sauber’s historic headquarters will soon see great innovations inside. The wind tunnel, one of the flagships of the factory and also used by other teams, has been updated and improved with major investments. Now it’s time for the next step. The construction of a “homemade” simulator, a necessary tool in order to make a quality leap in the design of the next cars, in particular that of 2021 which will be born on the wave of a revolution in regulations. Until now, Alfa-Sauber actually relied on Scuderia Ferrari for this.

In short, the drivers went to Maranello to prepare the set-up for the races, using the famous “spider”. Instead, from the middle of this year Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Räikkönen will be able to start working on the new simulator at Hinwil, which will be fully operational next season. The team will have to carefully balance the budget for the 2020 car with that for 2021, as the cars will have to be completely redesigned. It will be a year of extra spending and it’s likely that smaller teams will decide to freeze development by summer to shift to the 2021 cars.