Valtteri Bottas: Alfa Romeo's F1 chassis is still far off the pace

Valtteri Bottas believes Alfa Romeo's C43 Formula 1 chassis initially lagged behind the team's 2023 performance targets and still needs plenty of work.

Despite subsequent efforts in development, Alfa's performances have not been significantly improved.

During the first 12 races of the season, the Swiss team has only accumulated nine points, a notable drop from the 51 points achieved in the same period last year.

Notably, Bottas's eighth-place finish in the Bahrain season opener stands as the team's best result this year.

Bottas attributed the team's underperformance to a weaker starting point compared to the previous year. He noted that throughout the current season, the team struggled to bridge the gap with its competitors despite ongoing developments.

While acknowledging his dissatisfaction with the current car's performance, Bottas stressed the importance of using this experience to inform Alfa Romeo's plans for 2024.

He urged the team not to succumb to frustration but rather to maintain focus on future progress.

"Everyone in the team understands that the starting point of the season was not as strong as last year, and it's been quite difficult to get up from there," said Bottas.

"Yes, we've been bringing upgrades, but so is everybody else. That's how it goes.

"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. Ever since then everyone's improving, and some teams have made big steps - like McLaren recently.

"I mean by those performance targets, where we wanted to be in terms of what we find in old areas, whether it's mechanical, whether it's aero, whether it's about tyres - the level where we started wasn't where we wanted to be."