Valtteri Bottas claims Alfa Romeo C43’s chassis failed to meet 2023 team standards

Alfa Romeo ranks ninth with nine points and 4 top-ten finishes in 2023.

Valtteri Bottas claims Alfa Romeo C43’s chassis failed to meet 2023 team standards

Valtteri Bottas (Image credit: Formula Nerds)

After clinching the sixth position in the constructors’ championship of the previous season, Alfa Romeo currently holds the ninth spot as they reach the mid-season break. Their point total stands at nine points. Impressively, they have secured four top-ten finishes in the races held in 2023. Out of these, Valtteri Bottas has contributed to two. Alongside him, Zhou Guanyu, who is in his second year with the team, has secured two top-ten finishes.

Valtteri Bottas shared that the team comprehends their weaker season starts than the prior year. Recovering from this has been a challenge. Despite introducing upgrades, Bottas recognized this is standard across Formula 1. Unsatisfied with their current performance, the team aims to create a solid plan for next year, focusing forward. Bottas admitted being outpaced in development and acknowledged groups like McLaren making substantial progress.“

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“We’re not satisfied with the performance at the moment, and it’s tough racing at the back when you want to be close to the front. But we don’t get frustrated yet, because we need to look ahead and now make a good plan for next year. We’ve been out-developed, yes. Also, the way the car was born, just the pure performance level was not where we wanted,” Bottas told Autosport.

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Also read: Valtteri Bottas claims Alfa Romeo needs to be ‘perfect’ to score points in the rest of the 2023 season

Alfa Romeo’s season of missed opportunities

Alfa Romeo C43 (Image credit: Sportskeeda)

Despite addressing the reliability issues that haunted them in the prior season, Alfa Romeo seems to have let slip several chances to bolster their points total this year. The team faced disappointment at the Hungaroring as neither driver managed to secure points, despite Zhou and Bottas impressively clinching the fifth and seventh positions on the grid.

“I think in the first like five, six races of last year, for sure it looked maybe a bit better than what it was because of some teams having issues, and we were one of the only teams on the weight limit. Then the mid-season and the end season probably was more representative like where we were. But even from that, we were expecting to make a step,” Valtteri Bottas said.

Moreover, at Spa-Francorchamps, Zhou encountered a setback when he was advised to alter a brake setting while being nearly half a second faster in the first sector of his final push lap, ultimately missing out on Q2.

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