Valtteri Bottas is eager to get back on track with Alfa Romeo in Hungary after a tough French Grand Prix weekend that he concluded once again out of the points.
Alfa is in the midst of a performance slump that started at Silverstone and extended to Paul Ricard where neither Bottas nor teammate Zhou Guanyu were top ten contenders on race day.
From P11 on the grid, Bottas suffered a poor start that dropped him down the order to 16th on the opening lap. Slow launches due to excessive wheelspin have been a chronic issue at Alfa Romeo, and it led the Swiss outfit to update the transmission of its C42 with new componentry supplied by Ferrari.
But Bottas felt that the problem at Paul Ricard was not clutch-related.
"It felt like it's not a clutch issue, just wheelspin at the start, so [we] need to investigate why," said the Finn.
Thereafter followed a long, drawn out afternoon during which Alfa's initial race strategy plans were disrupted by the timing of a safety car.
"It was a really long race and it felt like a lot of sweat with nothing to show for it!" he said. "Of course, you can learn something from every race, so that must be what we take away from this weekend.
"We dropped a lot of places at the start and that made it very difficult for us. Our pace was not as good as we expected, even though the car improved a lot on medium tyres."
Looking ahead to next weekend's round of racing at the Hungaroring, Bottas hopes a few changes on Alfa's C42 will help him turn around his and his team's fortunes. Alfa Romeo currently sits sixth in the Constructors' standings, but 38 points behind McLaren.
"Having back-to-back races offers us the chance to bounce back right away from the tough weekend we had in France, where nothing seemed to be working in our favour," he said.
"The team has been working really hard these to find a solution to our struggles, and together with some updates we can hopefully put up a good fight for points in the midfield.
"I enjoyed racing at the Hugaroring in the past, having also been on the podium here twice before, and I am looking forward to being back in action on track.
"The fans are always passionate and welcoming here, and it would be nice to put up a good show for them before the summer break."
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