Bottas airs Alfa Romeo expectations on street return

Valtteri Bottas is hopeful the "normal" Azerbaijan corners will help Alfa Romeo bounce back from a difficult weekend at the recent Monaco Grand Prix.

Alfa Romeo was tipped as an outside bet to challenge the top teams in Monaco after showing strong pace through the final sector in Spain.

But after Bottas suffered an MGU-K failure on his first lap in Friday practice, the team was on the back foot for the duration of the weekend, with the Finn ending Sunday's race ninth and team-mate Zhou Guanyu.

"I thought [Monaco would suit us] but it didn't so now it is important for us to understand why," explained Bottas.

"I feel like there is something mechanically that didn't quite fit with these corners.

"For Baku, I think they are a little bit more like normal types of corners - 90-degree corners and not much camber and off-camber, except in the old town. So I hope it is better."

Bottas' race pace and the two points he scored marked a recovery for Alfa Romeo in the race after the Finn had started 12th.

Assessing where Alfa Romeo's problems had been in the principality, Bottas added: "We simply struggled in any corner with camber or kerbing.

"That is where we seemed to struggle so we have a small clue of what is up. We will see."

Additional reporting by Ian Parkes

Related

F1 News & Gossip

F1 team to change names between races in 2024

• February 11, 2024 16:57

Breaking F1 News

‘If Shrek was in F1’ - Fans BLAST team’s new 2024 car

• February 5, 2024 21:11