Alfa Romeo Team Representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi believes that Valtteri Bottas has had a strong influence on the team perhaps not seen from the outside.
Bottas joined the squad at the start of 2022 after five years of racing alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. He went on to finish the season in 10th place with 49 points.
Whilst the team have faced mixed fortunes so far in 2023, Alunni Bravi expects Bottas to stay in F1 for some time in order to challenge for podiums and wins again.
"I think he wants to stay in Formula 1," Alunni Bravi told media, including RacingNews365.com.
"He wants to come back to fight for podiums, for wins. This is the ambition for every driver, of course, but he wants to be [fighting at the front]."
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Bottas brought 'winning culture' from Mercedes
Alunni Bravi credits Bottas – a 10-time F1 race winner – with helping Alfa Romeo to grow.
"He's helping our team to do this step," he explained.
"It was important last year for us, because he instilled in the team this winning culture that Mercedes had. Maybe from outside, you didn't notice this too much, but it was really important.
"His presence during each week, coming to the workshop, working with the engineers, working on the simulator, having speeches with our employees to motivate our group with them here, working together with Zhou [Guanyu]."
Alunni Bravi feels that Bottas' contribution to the team works well alongside that from Zhou, who completed his rookie season with the outfit in 2022.
"Valtteri is important, as important as Zhou," he added.
"This is why we think that we have a good mix of driver."
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