Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas says the crew are “not assembly targets” they set for the yr after failing to attain once more at Silverstone.

Bottas had a tough British Grand Prix weekend, breaking down in Q1 after which being excluded from the outcomes of qualifying after the crew failed to offer the required gas pattern from his automobile. From twentieth and final on the grid he was in a position to recuperate to twelfth.

He stated it had been a “good race” however admitted “that’s the place the tempo was” for the time being. He doubted factors would have been doable even even from the next beginning place.

“Undoubtedly we made a step, but in addition different groups made steps,” stated Bottas. “It’s the secret. So must discover a bit extra.

“We don’t have something coming within the subsequent two occasions, however after the summer season break. So the fellows and ladies really want to work actually arduous within the manufacturing facility to carry some new bits.”

Alfa Romeo completed sixth within the constructors’ championship final yr however seem unlikely to copy that this season. Their second point-less weekend in a row noticed Williams overtake them within the standings, leaving Alfa Romeo ninth.

“It looks like they’ve made an enormous step, and for us for the time being they’re out of attain,” Bottas admitted.

“I believe at this level we’re approaching midway by the season and we’ve not been in a position to actually transfer up the order,” he added. “We have been anticipating to be higher than final yr,” stated Bottas, including the crew are “not assembly targets” that have been set for the season.

They crew have solely scored 9 factors over the primary 10 rounds of the season, in comparison with 51 over the identical interval final yr.

Alfa Romeo’s head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar believes the crew can transfer up the standings, as they’re solely two factors away from seventh place.

“Our direct opponents introduced upgrades, and evaluating with AlphaTauri, Haas, we could be preventing with them, we’re sooner than them,” he stated.

“I believe the one issue is with Williams for the time being. That they have been performing very sturdy, they have been preventing with Ferrari and even Aston Martin. They appear to be fairly sturdy the final couple of races, we’ve got to see if that continues like this.

“However for us, we will see that each one the gaps are fairly small and from race to race there generally is a little bit of a fluctuation. So on our facet we’ll simply preserve pushing and optimising our package deal and on the driving and every part race to race and it’s solely two factors to them.

“So we’re assured nonetheless from now till [summer] shutdown, it’s doable to overhaul Haas and Williams. That’s our purpose.”

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