In its final season underneath the Alfa Romeo identify, the Swiss outfit slumped from sixth to ninth on the earth championship, scoring solely 16 factors.
Bottas says the crew realised that it had reached the top of the road with its 2023 automobile and that an all-new strategy was wanted as a revised design crew begins to gel underneath technical director James Key.
“I am glad that it is over now,” stated the Finn of the previous season. “And subsequent yr, everybody begins from zero once more. There’s been many, many modifications within the crew currently. And I feel optimistic modifications.
“Additionally, the idea of subsequent yr’s automobile appears attention-grabbing. So in that sense, I do have hopes. However now we have to have to work exhausting for that and check out once more.
“The principle factor is we’d like a brand new automobile. And it must be completely different. In order that’s, I’d say the most important take we take from this yr, clearly we have hit the top with this automobile’s improvement, we simply have not been capable of finding any something huge. So the entire idea must be completely different. That is what we have realized.
“From what I’ve seen, I am completely satisfied, as a result of there are variations. I feel that is what we’d like. So many query marks, it is nonetheless early days. However a minimum of we’re seeing progress, and the previous few weeks have been truly fairly productive on the manufacturing facility.”
Picture by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Photos
Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo F1 Group
Bottas says that the Key’s enter has been a significant enhance for Sauber.
“I really feel like with some new folks now we have, together with James, there begins to be stuff occurring,” he stated.
“He has clearly a lot of data even from this yr’s McLaren, so for certain there’s good data coming from completely different folks. So that’s good to see. I feel that is what we would have liked.”
Reviewing the crew’s disappointing season, Bottas famous that not ending final within the constructors’ championship was a minimum of one optimistic.
“I feel the races that we had the tempo for the factors, I feel we managed to get them,” he stated.
“So finally the problem was we did not have the pure tempo this yr to be in high 10. We did not have a fast sufficient automobile. In order that’s the secret.
“It isn’t the final place, which is nice, but it surely’s a small step, however nonetheless not so good as final yr. I imply, it was a tough yr. We had been hoping to complete higher. However that is what it’s now. And now we’d like work for the longer term.
“We tried every thing we may, but it surely was a tough yr. So heaps to study from, and now we have to look forward, and keep motivated and keep assured.”
