By Lucrezia Costa
Valtteri Bottas is approaching his second season at Alfa Romeo, after bringing the Italian Swiss team to its best point haul of the past ten years.
The Finnish driver summed up his 2022 earlier in the press conference for the launch of the C43 earlier this morning: “It’s been a really interesting first year with the team, and it was nice to see some clear progress from the very start.”
“The team has become stronger over the course of the season, and the team spirit has grown too. There is obviously still work to do and things to improve, but it’s been nice to see the progress.”
Asked for his first impressions on the challenger developed for 2023, Bottas believes that the C43 will turn out to be an improvement compared to the car used in the first year of the new regulations:
“I feel like this car is at least from the numbers in the simulator a bit more of an all-rounder, versus just quick on the slow speed tracks.”
“One big limitation last year was high speed, just pure high-speed load and balance. And in theory, that should be way better. So let’s see,” he concluded.
His and his team’s goal for the upcoming season is to further improve the performance and results scored last year, hindered by reliability issues:
“We need to aim higher, that for sure. For a racing team – and a racing driver – I think wanting to finish higher than we did last year is natural.
“We made some pretty solid progress together, and now there’s only one direction to follow: up, higher, and better, both for myself and for the team.”
Sauber will have a first shakedown soon, but the first real chance the drivers will have to properly test their car will be at the Bahrein test on the 23rd-25th of February, shortened in order to make room for the longest calendar in the history of F1.
“It’s not a lot, it’s three days with one car, which means one and a half days per driver,” said the former Mercedes driver on the issue.
“Everybody would love to drive more, but the rules are the rules. And that’s when the simulation tools and all the computers become even more valuable.”
However, with such a small window for testing after the cancellation of the Barcelona runs, even the slightest reliability issue can have extremely severe consequences and further reduce the drivers’ opportunity to familiarise themselves with their new cars.
“At least it is the same for everybody. I think it is possible to be prepared, but you need to have a car that works in the testing. So for us, it is important to have much better winter testing than what we had last year,” he stressed.
Both Bottas and his teammate Zhou Guanyu have spent many hours in the simulator in order to get used to its tweaks and difference from the C42, but its real potential in racing terms will be unveiled only at Bahrain:
“Obviously I’ve been getting updates always like how things are going, what is new and very much involved in that. And I can’t wait to try it, how it feels. We all have big hopes for the season. But you never know how innovative other teams have been,” the Finn concluded.
