Bottas urges Alfa to put 'high focus' on improving reliability

Valtteri Bottas failed to score points for the fourth race in succession last weekend in Hungary where the Alfa Romeo charger also suffered his second DNF in four races.

A fuel system issue put paid to Bottas' efforts in the closing stages of the race while he was running P12.

Overall, Bottas and teammate Zhou Guanyu have failed to see the checkered flag in seven races this season, a track record that obviously frustrates the Finn.

"We had some pace this weekend, a bit more than the previous weekend, so that's getting there, but we need to finish the race," said the 32-year-old.

"It's not consistent enough and we know it. We need to keep working on that, because it would have been an even greater shame if we were aiming to score points again and we had that issue.

"There will be a high focus on that."

Alfa still sits P6 in F1's Constructors' standings, but the Swiss outfit has now a good 45 points behind its Alpine and McLaren rivals.

• Read also: F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2022 Hungarian GP

Bottas looked like he would perhaps enjoy a promising race at the Hungaroring thanks to his P8 performance in qualifying.

But a yellow-to-hard two-stop tyre strategy proved sub-optimal.

"It was tricky again, a bit like in France, as the hard tires didn't build up as fast as I was hoping," admitted Bottas.

"We tried it, we thought that was going to be the best chance for us, but ultimately it wasn’t.

"We committed to a one-stop strategy, and it was hard to back out of it.

"I am looking forward to enjoying the summer break now, to recharge and come back full of energy for the second half of the season."

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