The C42 was designed and built by Alfa Romeo to meet a new generation of technical regulations, which were originally intended for the 2021 season but were delayed until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Development of all new-generation cars was paused from March 28, 2020, until December 31, 2020.
The car's designation, C42, followed the C41 and C39. The designation C40 had been internally allocated for the anticipated 2021 regulations. When these were delayed, the C41 was developed based on the C39 for the interim regulations. Alfa Romeo chose the C42 designation to avoid a potentially confusing sequence of C39, C41, C40.
Valtteri Bottas noted that the early version of the C42 run on the Alfa Romeo simulator did not handle significantly differently from the 2021 cars.
The C42 featured push-rod suspension on both the front and rear, departing from the common turbo-hybrid era setup of push-rod front and pull-rod rear. It had the shortest wheelbase of any 2022 car and packaged its Ferrari engine similarly to the works team, with wide sidepods featuring cooling louvres. Alfa Romeo developed several major components in-house, including the fuel tank, rear suspension, and the exterior structure of the gearbox, rather than sourcing them from Ferrari as its predecessor team Sauber had done since 2010. Technical Director Jan Monchaux cited Formula One's new budget regulations and increased engineering freedom as reasons for this independent design approach.
The C42 was the only car to weigh less than the original minimum weight requirement of 795 kg (1,753 lb). Following lobbying from other teams, a compromise was reached to raise the minimum weight limit to 798 kg (1,759 lb).
For the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the two C42s featured a special livery to coincide with the launch of the Alfa Romeo Tonale, replacing the red color on the rear of the vehicle with Montreal Green.
The C42 proved to be more competitive than its predecessors immediately, securing a double-points finish on its debut in Bahrain. Bottas' P6 finish was the team's highest race result since 2019. This strong start was followed by subsequent points finishes for Bottas in Australia, Imola, Miami, Spain, and Monaco, and another double-points finish in Canada. A substantial upgrade introduced at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix aided this performance, featuring a new floor edge and strake design, new sidepods that merged with the floor, and changes to the rear brake ducts.
Despite its initial competitiveness, the car suffered from reliability issues during both testing and races. Bottas retired in Saudi Arabia while running in the points, and Zhou retired with mechanical problems in Miami, Spain, and Baku. The team also frequently missed portions of practice due to reliability problems, which often hindered preparation for qualifying and races.
The C42 experienced a distinct loss in competitiveness relative to the field after Canada, securing only three more points finishes: Zhou's P10 at Monza, and Bottas' points finishes at Mexico and Brazil. Aston Martin eventually caught up to Alfa Romeo in the Constructors' Championship with the same number of points. However, Alfa Romeo ultimately claimed P6 for the first time since 2012 (when the team competed as Sauber) due to the tiebreaker of Bottas' P5 finish at Imola.
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