After losing his steering wheel at Mercedes to the detriment of George Russell, the Finn had to choose between the only two seats available on the grid, Alfa Romeo or Williams.
Valtteri Bottas finally opted for the Swiss team, with whom he debuted with a great sixth position in Bahrain and, despite being forced to retire due to engine overheating in Saudi Arabia, he was putting in a solid performance, ahead of Esteban Ocon after qualifying eighth.
On the first date, the Finn shared a row with his former teammate at Mercedes, the seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton. In Jeddah, Bottas started eight places ahead of the Briton, and was only 79 thousandths behind his replacement in the German team.
“I think this has been the best scenario I could imagine for our first season together given the information I had,” the Finn said when asked by Motorsport.com if the team had lived up to his expectations.
“I am very happy with the decision I made, and also in general, so yes, I am enjoying myself. If we can continue to improve the car, there is no doubt that in the future we should be able to always fight for Q3 and the top ten. posts, that’s good to see,” he continued.
Bottas said Alfa Romeo can aim to take on Mercedes , which would mean leading the midfield and fighting to be the third-best team on the grid in 2022: “I think that should be the goal now, it looks like we’re more or less in the same place as in Bahrain, although I thought this (Jeddah) might be more difficult.
“I think that aspiring to be the best of the rest is a good motivation, and good goals. I hope that in the end we can fight for fifth place in the race, that would be a big step for us,” said the Hinwil team driver.
In the last test in Saudi Arabia, Bottas had to retire due to the high temperature in his Ferrari engine. At first he went through the pits to try to continue after his mechanics cleaned the radiators, but a few laps later the critical moment arrived.
“The temperature of the power unit started to increase, at first a little, but then it increased quickly and nothing stopped it,” he explained. “Probably because of a leak or something, and in the end we had to stop the car so as not to break the engine.”
“We had a good race so far, I was fighting with Fernando [Alonso], who also retired, so I think he was fighting for sixth position. The car was good, the pace was good and, in any case, maybe we had a bit of an advantage over the Alpines, so it’s not bad”, expressed the Finn.
Team boss Frédéric Vasseur admitted that it was frustrating that such a strong weekend for Bottas ended in retirement: “We had a problem with the temperature from lap to lap.”
“We asked him to come into the pits at one point, and we changed the tyres, we cleaned the air ducts, but then everything came back, so we stopped the car to avoid damaging the engine,” the Frenchman told Motorsport.com.
Despite the disappointment, Vasseur noted that 2022 is “a different world” from last season, when Alfa Romeo was at the back of the grid.
“We were less than a tenth from fifth in qualifying. It’s encouraging for the team, because after Bahrain, on a different track, we showed that the pace was there, that we can see it on every track, and that’s good for us. It was a shame not to get many points in that situation,” he continued.
“I think we’re a bit disappointed that we’re leaving with a zero, but on the other hand, a year ago we weren’t in no man’s land, outside of Q1, now it’s a different world.
