Valtteri Bottas thinks “things are going in the right direction” for Alfa Romeo but there is still work to do to reach the front of the field.In his second season as an Alfa Romeo driver, Valtteri Bottas spoke about the team’s progress over the past few seasons and the direction it is trying to follow. The Finnish driver’s move from the successful Mercedes to Alfa Romeo has been at the centre of some debate. For some, the time had come for Bottas to lose the role of second driver, others were just waiting to see if his successor George Russell would have the freedom to fight for the Championship.In his new team, Bottas had to adapt to different dynamics and a ride made of ups and downs, compared to his Mercedes journey. He was asked what he thought of this journey and whether he had seen any developments.
“Definitely seen a bit of evolution. I think just the attention to smaller details has improved a lot, like even when I look at the car, everything is just a bit better finished and more detailed. And the same operationally in the team, I think we are making steps forward.”
From the drivers to the mechanics, everyone has seen progress. But things have just begun to move in the right direction, the finish line is to fight at the front of the field.
“Even if you look at how things fit in the car, like bodywork, or you look at the wings and stuff like that. Even the mechanics say ‘mechanically, to work with the car now everything is a bit more precise’. Things like that.“But with performance, the steps we made over the winter, it was not enough. So that’s what we obviously are focussed on now. But I’m seeing progress in the team. And also like I think everyone in the team also senses the excitement of the future line-up of the team [Audi].“So yeah, I think things are going in the right direction, maybe not quite as fast as we were hoping for in the last year or so. But it’s going in the right direction.”
Everyone works to climb the ranks. One Team that is demonstrating a breakthrough toward the top teams is Aston Martin. Seeing concrete results from one that came off a disappointing season laden with expectations that were not matched and the departure of the top driver who represented a guide torward a long-term improvement project, has the merit of motivating the rest of the grid.
“Yeah, there’s still a lot of work to do, no doubt. And everyone knows in the team, and also Andreas and Alessandro, they know it. We accept it. But I think one example team in this paddock..it’s actually quite motivating to see what Aston was able to do over the winter. It shows that you can make, you know, decent jumps if you get things right, so I think we need to look at teams like Aston or Red Bull and what they’ve done, and seeing that as motivation that it is possible.”
Photo Credit: Alfa Romeo F1 Team
