F1 News: Valtteri Bottas Enthusiastic - "It's Nice To Be Back"

Valtteri Bottas reflects on his point for Alfa Romeo at Monza, while teammate Zhou Guanyu eyes improvements for the upcoming Singapore race.

Valtteri Bottas clinched a significant point for Alfa Romeo at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. Meanwhile, teammate Zhou Guanyu remains hopeful about forthcoming upgrades for the Singapore race.

Valtteri Bottas, the Finnish racer, showcased an exemplary performance at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, claiming a point for the Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake at the Italian Grand Prix.

Staring the race in fourteenth position, Bottas and his Zurich-based team skillfully deployed a hard-medium tyre strategy. By lap twenty-five, the Finnish driver transitioned from a used set of hard tyres to medium compounds. This strategic switch propelled his car's performance, enabling him to overtake competitors such as Liam Lawson in the AlphaTauri and Logan Sargeant in the Williams, and secure a place in the top ten for the third time this year.

Bottas reflected on the race on Sunday: 

“Points were the target today, and we achieved that: it’s nice to be back in the top ten as it had been a while, despite all our hard work, and this point is for everyone at Alfa Romeo.”

Elaborating on the significance of this point, he stated: 

“It may be just one point, but it is a good reward for the job done to turn our weekend around, and for the support of our home team from the grandstands.” 

Contrastingly, teammate of the ex-Mercedes driver, Zhou Guanyu, faced challenges during the iconic race. 

Settling at fourteenth, Zhou's two-stop strategy didn't pan out as intended. Following an early elimination in Saturday’s qualifying at Monza, Zhou's aspirations for Sunday revolved around an aggressive strategy. However, despite initial setbacks, Zhou remained optimistic about the progress the team demonstrated between the qualifying sessions and the actual race. 

He commented: 

“I am glad to see Valtteri bring home one point from this race, a point that helps us close the gap to Haas.

“Considering the results we had on Friday and Saturday, we made a massive step forward, which is encouraging for the races ahead – especially as we are meant to bring further upgrades in Singapore, where we must make a further improvement.

“I believe that, overall, it has been a clean race from my side; Valtteri and I were on different tyre strategies, he started on hard tyres, and I was on mediums, focusing on the Alpines in the hope of undercutting them.

“In terms of pure pace, we were still behind Williams; for this reason, it’ll be crucial to make that step forward in Singapore and keep on working to add new points to our tally.”

Alfa Romeo will be hoping to nudge beside Haas in the Constructor Standings this coming weekend with them currently sitting only one point behind the American team with 10 points. Singapore will be a pivotal race for the team.