Bottas issues Alfa Romeo 2023 demand

Valtteri Bottas has urged Alfa Romeo to believe in its ability to consistently fight for points in F1 after results tailed off over the second half of the past season.

The Finn enjoyed a strong start to the campaign after joining from then constructors' champions Mercedes, scoring 46 of his 49-point haul in the first nine races.

Bottas' best result was fifth in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola which proved to be pivotal to Alfa Romeo as it secured the team sixth in the constructors' standings after it finished tied on points with Aston Martin.

But as other teams were able to address their problems, Alfa Romeo lagged behind until an update that was introduced in Mexico allowed the 33-year-old to return to the points in two of the last three races following a 10-event drought.

Speaking in an end-of-season interview with GPFans, Bottas said: “In this sport, and as a driver, you always think we should have got more. That's the feeling.

“But still, if I take a step back and think about the expectations last year for this year, I think we'd still take it.

“With that feeling we got at the beginning of the year, consistently scoring, sometimes even sixth place, fifth place, you definitely miss that kind of performance.

“But it was really important for the team to feel that, at the beginning of the year, that ‘Yes, we can do it. We can be consistently there’.

“Mexico was positive in terms of the performance but before that, it was like everyone definitely missed that feeling of being in the points all the time.

"So the team is really hungry to get back to that, so that's good.”

Additional reporting by Sam Hall

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

Italian Grand Prix result could be changed as F1 team confirms official FIA appeal

• Yesterday 22:30

Fernando Alonso announces news on F1 2027 future decision: 'It's nice this way'

• Yesterday 21:44

Lance Stroll 'as quick as Alonso' as insider delivers 'unbeatable' verdict

• Yesterday 20:50

Max Verstappen crashes in first laps of Madring circuit: 'I have no idea where it's going'

• Yesterday 19:50

Ferrari F1 boss rejects Lewis Hamilton request after showdown talks

• Yesterday 18:46

New Madring F1 track under fire for 'illegal' food ban as official complaint filed

• Yesterday 17:27