Bottas has hope: 'More available next year'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
In an extensive interview with Motorsport.com Valtteri Bottas takes stock of the current season. Among other things, the Alfa Romeo driver analyses the results achieved by the team and what changes next season brings.
After five years with Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton's wingman, Bottas made the switch to Swiss Alfa Romeo this year. With rookie Zhou Guanyu alongside him, the Finnish driver began a new task at the team which finished second last last year.
Strong start for Alfa Romeo
The year started promisingly: in the first race alone, Alfa Romeo took almost as many points as in the entire previous season. The team managed to continue this trend pretty well. Bottas scored points in seven of the first nine races. Although Zhou did not score the same results as his more experienced teammate, he was close to scoring points on several occasions. From race 10, however, the results sank. Since the Silverstone Grand Prix in July, Alfa Romeo has managed to score just one point.
According to Bottas, the reason for this lies in the team's manpower. Alfa Romeo employs about five hundred people, which is relatively few. By comparison, the Williams team - which is invariably at the bottom - employs seven hundred and fifty people. Top teams like Red Bull and Mercedes are closer to a thousand. At Alfa Romeo, this means that projects cannot be picked up as much as they would like, so the car is not developed as much as its competitors.
According to Bottas, this lack of personnel is why the team has lost so many points in the second half of the season. "We have a good structure, but we need more people. Next year we will have more staff available and it will definitely be an important step for the team's growth," Bottas said.