Valtteri Bottas says Alfa Romeo’s double points haul at the Qatar Grand Prix shows it “finally understands” the upgrades it has brought in recent rounds.
Alfa Romeo had only notched a solitary point across the eight rounds before heading to Qatar, leaving the side rooted down in ninth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
However, Bottas managed to advance into Q3 during Friday’s qualifying session, converting a ninth-place starting berth into an eighth-place finish in Sunday’s race.
Amid the FIA imposing maximum 18-lap stint lengths to alleviate concerns over the tyres, Alfa Romeo took advantage of an early Safety Car to pit Bottas after only three laps.
Bottas’ early gamble paid dividends as he took the chequered flag ninth, which became eighth when Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was penalised a third time for track limits.
“Really clean race, good strategy,” Bottas reflected. “Of course, it felt a bit strange to stop after three laps from a good position, but in the end it meant all the stints were just equal stints and we thought that would be the fastest way to the flag – and it was.”
Bottas concedes that Alfa Romeo got fortunate with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz being ruled out with a fuel-system issue and the two Mercedes’ making contact at Turn 1.
The ex-Mercedes driver, however, contends that the Italian marque “got everything right” on Sunday at the Lusail International Circuit.
Alfa Romeo elected to split strategies, enabling Zhou Guanyu to rise from 19th to ninth, ensuring the team achieved a double points score for the first time this season.
“Yeah, of course we had a bit of luck either way, because Lewis [Hamilton] was out and also Sainz didn’t start,” Bottas acknowledged.
“So otherwise, P8 would have been difficult, but sometimes you need that bit of luck and today we got everything right. And even Zhou, starting last and ending up 10th, had a great race.”
Bottas admits that the introduction of a mandatory stops rule was “quite weird” but adds that it makes a race “quite predictable as you know when the competition has to stop.”
“But I think it was good for safety, at least we didn’t see any incidents,” he continued. “Obviously safety needs to come first. In the ideal world the tyres last proper stints.”
Alfa Romeo’s six-point haul has now propelled the side above Haas into eighth place in the Constructors’ standings, only seven points behind Williams, who failed to score for the third consecutive weekend.
Asked if he now has more hope that Alfa Romeo can claim seventh, Bottas replied: “Definitely, we closed the gap a little bit. I feel like we definitely made some progress now and finally understand 100% the upgrades.
“Of course, the next race [Austin, United States] is quite a different track again, but it seems like we were definitely a bit more competitive this weekend than previous weekends.”
While many teams opted against bringing updates to Qatar, Alfa Romeo introduced a revised beam wing designed to work in tandem with previous upgrades to improve the overall aero balance of its C43 charger.
Despite the upgrades aiding Alfa Romeo’s pursuit of performance across the remaining rounds, Bottas insists that the team’s current car remains too “draggy” down the straights.
“Definitely helps a little bit, but we’re still draggy,” he contended. “I think we’re probably still the slowest in the straights, so something to work on but small step.”
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