Valtteri Bottas has called on Alfa Romeo to "find answers" after being left "confused" by his lack of pace in the Australian Grand Prix. Despite scoring points at the season-opening event in Bahrain, Bottas faced a difficult race in Saudi Arabia before enduring another tough weekend at the Albert Park Circuit, with the Finn ending the day outside of the points in P11. Bottas feels that luck did not go in his favour during the race, which featured three red flags and numerous restarts as a result. "It was disappointing that after the [penultimate] restart I was P9, but then they put me back to P12, because the timing cut off before or something like this," Bottas told media, including RacingNews365.com . "So it wasn't my lucky day. [The race] was quite lonely, to be honest. We obviously started from the pit lane, but then with the [first] red flag everyone was more or less on the same tyre. "The pace felt a bit better than yesterday, but even with many things happening it just didn't quite [help me]."
'Confusing' situation for Alfa Romeo
When asked if the team are as confused as he is over their lack of pace, Bottas explained: "Yes, it is confusing. "l don't know, I'm sure there's still a bit of investigation going on with different things." The 10-time race winner has urged Alfa Romeo to look into what is happening ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on 30 April. "I think we really need to understand as a team now what's going on," Bottas said. "It's not the performance we should be having, so I'm actually happy that there's a bit more time before the next race. "[We'll go] pretty much straight back to the factory and start reviewing things, and find solutions and answers and go from there. In the end, it's pretty simple. It's hard work."
Bottas: We have to bounce back
Bottas was pleased to see teammate Zhou Guanyu score points for the outfit in Australia but, when asked if the team can bounce back in Baku, he admitted: "We have to. "It's not good enough this weekend. Obviously [it's] good that my teammate got a couple of points but, still, I wasn't happy for it. But [I] still had good fun." Alfa Romeo have a total of six points so far in 2023, putting them eighth in the Constructors' Championship.
Most read
