Valtteri Bottas says his performance in the Australian Grand Prix was a far cry from what was expected and insists Alfa Romeo needs to "really understand" what is going on.
F1 fans would have been excused for believing that Bottas had sat out last weekend's race in Melbourne, for the Finn was nowhere to be seen in Sunday's proceedings.
A dismal performance in qualifying would have left Bottas on the last row of the grid, but Alfa's decision to change the suspension set up on the Finn's C43 mandated a pitlane start.
But progress was hard to come by during the race for the ten-time Grand Prix winner. Bottas nevertheless came into contention for points after the second restart when he emerged in ninth place when the dust had settled after the first corner chaos.
©AlfaRomeo
Unfortunately, race control's decision to red flag proceedings and count back to the previous starting grid positions to determine the running order for the final lap behind the safety car kicked Bottas back down to P12.
"It was disappointing that after the restart I was P9, but then they put me back to P12, because the timing cut off before or something like this," Bottas lamented.
"So it wasn't my lucky day. [The race] was quite lonely, to be honest. We obviously started from the pit lane, but then with the [first] red flag everyone was more or less on the same tyre.
"The pace felt a bit better than yesterday, but even with many things happening it just didn't quite [help me]."
Asked if his Alfa team was also left confused by his underperformance, Bottas replied: "Yes, it is confusing.
"l don't know, I'm sure there's still a bit of investigation going on with different things."
Although puzzled by his plight, Bottas believed his troubles were nothing some hard work cannot solve.
"I think we really need to understand as a team now what's going on," he added.
"It's not the performance we should be having, so I'm actually happy that there's a bit more time before the next race.
"[We'll go] pretty much straight back to the factory and start reviewing things and find solutions and answers and go from there. In the end, it's pretty simple. It's hard work."
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