After five consecutive seasons spent in Mercedes alongside Lewis Hamilton, the 2022 world championship has reserved a new challenge for Valtteri Bottaspassed in Alfa Romeo as Guanyu Zhou’s new teammate, making his F1 debut. Inevitably, despite the regulatory changes introduced this season, the Finn’s hopes of victory in his new team have been considerably reduced, even more when compared to Mercedes’ high level of competitiveness. Not surprisingly, the best result obtained so far is the 5th place conquered in Imola, in the Emilia-Romagna GP, but Bottas does not intend to raise the white flag for this.
Interviewed by GPFansthe 32-year-old has in fact reiterated his intention of wanting to achieve the long-term goals set with the team, not considering however impossible the conquest of the 4th place in the constructors’ championship: “It seems to me that overall the goals of Vasseur and our team are slightly more conservative – said the Finn – we could even reach the fourth position, and that remains our aim. However, we know that the state of form of Alpine and McLaren in recent times it’s a little scary, even if the main objectives remain. To achieve them, we need to achieve consistent results and solve the problems we have had this year ”.
At present, Alfa Romeo is in 6th place in the constructors’ classification, with 51 points totals won. However, the distance between the Alpine and McLaren, respectively in 4th and 5th place, is 48 and 44 points, with a gap created also due to the numerous reliability problems of the Ferrari power unit.
Despite this, while reiterating the main desire to reach the two rival teams, Bottas underlined the team’s long-term projects: “Let’s say that, even if we only got 20 points, it wouldn’t have been a big disappointment because we aim for the long term – he added – the starting point was a little better than we thought, but obviously it starts from there. It’s nice to aim for the long term: we don’t have to think only about the next few months, but also about the next two years ”.
#Bottas #targets #Alpine #McLaren #FormulaPassion.it