Valtteri Bottas asserts he is “not concerned” that the Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team lack the resources to make the “big steps” its rivals have enjoyed this year.
Alfa Romeo took advantage of the reset to the technical regulations last year to accrue 51 points across the opening nine races.
However, the Hinwil-based squad were swiftly out-developed by its competitors and only scored another four points in the remaining 13 rounds of the 2022 campaign.
That plight has continued into the current season, with Alfa Romeo currently languishing ninth in the Constructors’ Championship with only 10 points so far.
Having outlined that the Sauber-owned side isn’t in a holding pattern until Audi’s arrival in 2026, Bottas declares he has “confidence” in the team to arrest its current slide.
“Yeah, we definitely haven’t made the steps that we wanted from last year to this year,” Bottas admitted. “And yeah, it’s clear some teams made big steps but I’m not concerned that we don’t have the resources.
“I think this team has… now that I’ve been part of it, I’ve seen it has become a lot stronger in terms of how it operates at the factory, at the races.
“So there’s been a bit of reconstructing of the team also happening lately which will hopefully show a bit more next year.
“So I’m confident that everyone is in this together and really trying to get back to where we want to be and even further. So full confidence in the team.”
The restructuring Bottas alludes to will undoubtedly concern the appointment of James Key – who departed McLaren earlier this year – as the side’s Technical Director.
Guanyu Zhou, who has been re-signed for a third year at the team alongside Bottas in 2024, has lavished praise on Alfa Romeo’s recruitment of the British engineer.
“It’s very refreshing for the team in general,” Zhou told Autosport. “The atmosphere doesn’t change massively but just the way how we bring in new people.
“James works closely with Andreas which is nice in a way because Andreas is going to lead the works team in the future, so it sounds super exciting.
“I had a lot of meetings with James. He was quite happy to hear drivers’ feedback, which is very clear just to be moving forward and to improve. It’s key we [need] bigger changes to make the [2024] package a bigger step.
“So, I think that’s what James is here for, we can be definitely heading in that direction in the future.”
Meanwhile, Alfa Romeo’s Head of Trackside Engineering Xevi Pujolar outlines Key has been brought on board to help the team avoid being rooted in stagnation.
“Our mindset is to make a big step. Otherwise, we’ll get stuck where we are,” Pujolar added.
“[James] is really working on next year’s car but obviously he’s just looking at what we’ve got now, and helping in any area that we can improve in the short term. Which we want to do because P7 is still our target.”
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