(Motorsport-Total.com) — After a strong start to the season, Alfa Romeo fears Aston Martin will still hold them in the World Championship. Sebastian Vettel’s racing team is only seven points behind Alfa Romeo and in much better shape: Aston Martin has scored 29 points since the race in Canada in July, while Alfa Romeo has only one.
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Valtteri Bottas scored the last goal in Canada
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Valtteri Bottas has not finished in points for nine races and is also struggling with some reliability issues. However, he finished in the top 10 seven times in the first nine races of the year.
“At the beginning of the year you get a taste of consistency and good points, but when you don’t have them you end up missing those moments,” Bottas said at a sponsorship event. “We also have to finish sixth in the constructors’ championship. That means we still have to score points.”
But it only works if the reliability is right as well as the speed. The racing team has faced seven retirements since turning point in Canada. In Hungary, Bottas retired with a power unit problem, in Zandvoort it was a problem with the fuel system. He was also involved in a confrontation with Nicolas Latifi at Spa.
However, the team’s troubles began during the winter test drive. In Barcelona, Alfa Romeo was only able to do 175 laps – only Haas drove a little less. For comparison: front runner Ferrari completed 439 laps.
You can cover losses with good pace at the start of the season, but missing kilometers can cause problems for the rest of the season, Bottas says: “I think many of these failures are due to reliability, because we’ve had a winter break. Gave very poor mileage during the tests,” Bottas said.
“If you don’t have the mileage to test some parts, they can eventually fail. And that’s exactly what happened,” Finn said. “But I think we’ve learned a lot. And we’ve focused on developing the car for next year, so we’re counting on that a lot.”
He is convinced that Alfa Romeo has learned the lessons of the season and is going strong in 2023. But it should go on for a full season: “We’re still a small team compared to some others, but not for much longer,” he says.
“I think we’re growing as a team, we’re getting more and more people, so I think we’ll be on the same level with everyone in the years to come,” Bottas said. “So I believe that in the future, whether it’s next year or the year after, we have a great chance to be very close to the top.”
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