Bottas' motivation is intact: 'I still have many years in me'

Like fine wine, Valtteri Bottas believes he's getting better with each passing year, and the Finn reckons he still has many seasons of racing in him.

Bottas started his career in F1 with Williams in 2013, but conquered all ten of his Grand Prix wins with the mighty Mercedes squad for whom he raced from 2017 to 2022, with Lewis Hamilton as his teammate.

The Briton's presence on the other side of the garage likely prevented Bottas from adding more victories to his track record. And he isn't anticipating improving his winning stats in his second year with Alfa Romeo, at least not on merit.

"The target for this season is to finish higher than last year and be much more consistent," Bottas said at Monday's presentation of Alfa's new C43, alluding to the Swiss outfit's P6 position in last year's Constructors' standings.

"We had too many ups and downs last year. Also, I'm always secretly dreaming about the podium so let's see."

Bottas will line-up this year as the fourth oldest driver on the grid behind veteran Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso (41), Hamilton (37) and Haas' Nico Hulkenberg (35).

As 33, the Finn is no longer a spring chicken, but he is physically at the top of his game, and he believes that he still has a significant amount of fuel and fire in his tank, for years to come.

"I feel good. Physically I feel fit," said Bottas. "I feel good in the car. I haven't had a single sign of decreased performance since the start of my career.

"Actually, I always feel like from every season I learn something new and that way you become more experienced and better. I still have many years in me, no doubt.

"I'm enjoying the racing, enjoying everything involved in F1 so I have many, many years ahead of me so let's see what happens."

• Read also: Bottas admits to training addiction and eating disorder

Bottas suggested last year that he had rekindled his motivation at Alfa Romeo, in an environment much more relaxed that the one he basked in at Mercedes as Hamilton's teammate.

He reiterated that claim in Zurich on Tuesday.

"If I look at everything overall in terms of life quality and happiness, I would say I am stressing less about certain things and there's less outside pressure at the moment," he explained.

"It's definitely a different atmosphere. Of course, it was nice to be able to fight for race wins but that's what we are working towards with this team now so I'm very, very happy."

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