Bottas - F1 unknowns "hard to accept"

Valtteri Bottas has accepted he will have to be "realistic" in his first season with Alfa Romeo and suggested it is "hard to accept" the team's performance is a mystery.

The Finn has made the switch from championship winners Mercedes to the Hinwil-based outfit, which finished ninth in last season's constructors' standings.

Bottas took a solitary victory in his last campaign with the Silver Arrows although was often cast into a supporting role as Lewis Hamilton duelled Max Verstappen for the championship.

The F1 pecking order is destined to be shuffled from this year on given the introduction of radically altered regulations changing the aerodynamic make-up of the cars.

With this in mind, Bottas told GPFans in an end of season interview: "I feel like that's the beauty of these new regulations, and the budget cap, and everything, that I feel like anything is possible.

"I definitely feel like Alfa Romeo, it should be higher up than what it is now, at least from what I've seen at the factory and the people, the motivation and everything.

"That's the beauty of the new regs, but you just don't know, so it's quite hard to accept.

"For sure, I'm realistic. I don't think we're going to be consistently fighting for the wins next year, like [we did] with Mercedes, but consistently being in the points in the first year with the team, I think that is possible.

"There's so many variables and so many things that will eventually affect how it's going to be."