Bottas ‘slacking off a little bit’ at Alfa Romeo: ‘He’s lost his edge’

Bottas joined Alfa Romeo for the 2022 season after five seasons at Mercedes alongside Lewis Hamilton.

During his time in Brackley, Mercedes remained unbeaten in the F1 constructors’ championship, winning five consecutive titles.

Bottas’ career with Alfa Romeo started brightly, with several big points hauls in the early part of 2022.

Since then, as Alfa’s competitiveness has reduced, Bottas has found it difficult to shine.

Plus, his advantage over Zhou Guanyu has completely diminished. 

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Windsor - a former Ferrari and Williams team manager - doesn’t see Bottas remaining in F1 in time for Audi’s arrival.

“I like Valtteri, good bloke, and he was very quick in the early days, he’s still pretty quick now, but he does seem to have difficulties stitching the whole weekend together,” he said.

“He’ll seem quick on a Friday and then it falls away in qualifying, or he has a decent qualifying and it falls away in the race, a little bit like that yesterday [on Sunday].

“Is Valtteri slacking off as an F1 driver? I suspect he has a little bit. We’ve seen him on occasions this year looking pretty sharp and going well, not massively quicker than Zhou Guanyu, but looking good.

“But I think there is a little bit of loss of edge with Valtteri, which comes with the life he’s living now, and I think looking ahead into the future, he can see the Audi takeover if you like and the rebranding and the whole new technology, probably isn’t going to include Valtteri Bottas. It might in some sort of managerial or advisory role, probably not thinking of himself as a driver.

“And then he’s probably thinking ‘well that’s my moment’, he’s not thinking ‘I’ll back away’ at all, but I think when those thoughts start to come into your head, for example I can’t imagine Oscar Piastri or Liam Lawson are thinking ‘when am I going to retire?’ I think in Valtteri’s case possibly there is a little bit of that.

“But give him a good racing car, good set of tyres, free lap, he’ll be as quick as anybody, most people anyway.”

Bottas will remain with Alfa Romeo in 2024, the final year of his multi-year contract.