Valtteri Bottas admits it has been “weird” to see Mercedes struggle in the opening stages of the 2022 season.

Valtteri Bottas will debut for Alfa Romeo in 2022

Valtteri Bottas signed a new contract with Alpha Romeo, marking his first season away from Mercedes since 2017. The Finn is now driving alongside a rookie, Zhou in his debut F1 season. Alpha Romeo chose these two new drivers to line up on the grid after Kimi Raikkonen retired and Antonio Giovinazzi fell out of seat.

In his first race with Alfa Romeo, Valtteri Bottas finished P6 in the Bahrain Grand Prix, outqualifying George Russell who was replaced by him at Mercedes. Even during the Bahrain Grand Prix, Bottas was on the way to beating Hamilton before problems started to occur in his car, and had to retire. Mercedes form has been opposite to that of Alfa Romeo and Bottas, who has emerged as one of the surprise packages of the season so far.

Having won eight Constructors’ Championships, Valtteri Bottas reveals it being “weird” to see the once-dominant Mercedes struggling for points now. “I would guess he had some kind of issue; I don’t know.” Said Valtteri Bottas following Hamilton’s elimination in Q1.

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Valtteri Bottas’ insight on Mercedes performance in the opening stage

Valtteri Bottas is not able to put a pin on the way he is feeling about Mercedes’ performance as even though it feels weird for the strongest team for eight consecutive years to struggle like this, Valtteri also feels nice on the other hand as it gives him a chance to battle them now. “I think this was kind of the best-case-scenario for our first season together that I could ever imagine, with the information I had,” added Bottas.

This is “how racing goes”, said Valtteri after retiring the car before putting forth a brilliant fight for P6 alongside the battle with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon. He won on the course of scoring some good points for the team that evening before a rising engine temperature forced the Finn to retire his car during the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.

“Looking at the positives, the car is really good. We made another step forward from the previous race, even in the starts. We were doing a good job and enjoying some close battles,” added Bottas ahead of the Australian Grand Prix where he is optimistic about scoring some points for the team. Currently, Valtteri Bottas is in the ninth position in the driver’s championship with Alfa Romeo sixth on the Constructors.

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