‘I can be the best version of myself’ - Bottas eyes improvement with Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo was the final team to officially launch its all-new 2022 F1 challenger ahead of the new season, choosing to do so after the conclusion of the first test in Barcelona.

Speaking shortly after the launch of the Alfa Romeo C42, Bottas spoke about how he expects to continue to improve as a driver, particularly as he’s the natural team leader given his wealth of experience compared to new teammate Guanyu Zhou, who is a rookie.

“I absolutely feel that I have so much more to do to get better and so much more to give to this sport,” Bottas said. “As a driver, I think you never stop learning, as long as you want to. 

“So of course, I'm always looking at areas that I can be better, and it truly feels like now I can just be the best version of myself instead of trying to be something else and trying to hard. But in the end, it's going to be a team effort and I don't see me as the only leader of the team. 

“We're in this together. That's the feeling. And of course I can guide the way they can go if I gel like I have experiences from the past. But in the end, we're in this together with Guanyu and the whole team, and with Robert as well. But for now it's been a nice atmosphere and I'm more than happy to be here and again, I want to thank the team for this opportunity.”

The first test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was a tricky one for the Swiss-based outfit with a number of reliability issues hampering its running.

Despite the limited running, Bottas sees potential in the new Alfa Romeo package.

“The nice feeling is that I definitely feel that there is potential,” Bottas explained. “There's some strong areas in the car in certain type of corners. But also of course immediately, points to work on, with the balance, with some of the behaviour, but nothing that we shouldn't be able to fix. 

“So it feels like we're still in the very early stages of actually discovering the car. For me it was quite limited running that we had, only with two different compounds, only with very few set-up changes, so there's still so much more to discover, so that's what I'm really aiming to do in the test and get a better understanding in Bahrain. 

“There's work to do, I'm not saying anything against that, but also I feel there is potential in this package, and I'm looking forward to discover more about it with the team.”