“I’m enjoying it a lot”: Valtteri Bottas pleased with ‘different’ feeling at Alfa Romeo
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Valtteri Bottas
Valtteri Bottas parted ways with Mercedes last year. He won ten races there, but it was also a period full of uncertainties. Moreover, Bottas was always and was always going to be the second driver, forced to play wingman to Lewis Hamilton. The move to Alfa Romeo completely changed that.
In Alfa Romeo, Bottas is unquestionably the team’s leader and the most important driver. It does seem that he has generally also been happier after his move, as he is away from the stresses at Mercedes, where he often had to worry about whether he would have a contract for next year or not.
While Alfa Romeo have fallen away from the two other midfield contenders, Alpine and McLaren, there have undeniably been some great results for them, and especially for Bottas. And in an interview with Crash.net, the Finnish driver revealed that he is certainly loving life at his new team.
Valtteri Bottas: “I needed something new.”
With Alfa Romeo, Bottas no longer has a good shot at winning a race every weekend, which was something he definitely had in his time at Mercedes. Despite that, he is enjoying it. Bottas said: “I’m enjoying it a lot. It’s no lie, of course, I do miss going into a weekend knowing there is a big chance of winning the race.”
He added: “Now, realistically, it’s a bit of a long shot. It’s a different mindset. For me, this is a project that I jumped into and the rewarding feeling and satisfaction comes from different things. Seeing and feeling the progress. For example, fifth place in Imola for us as a team was almost like the feeling of a win. So it’s different, but I am really enjoying it a lot, this different mindset.”
Valtteri Bottas certainly gave up on a lot moving to Alfa Romeo, but he feels it was needed: “I think it was needed for me. I definitely needed something new, a new environment, new targets, new people around me. When I started F1, of course everything was super exciting and you feel like you want to do this forever. Then for sure, in terms of the love for the sport, at some point, I had a bit of a dip.”
But now, having left Mercedes, he feels that his love for the sport is back, even going as far as to say that he would like to drive forever, and that he is really enjoying it. Time will tell what the future will bring for Bottas, but he certainly is happier with Alfa Romeo than he was in the past.
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)