Valtteri Bottas admits that Alfa Romeo has taken the step forward that it expected this season, but the Finn insists the Hinwil squad is "pushing" and not standing still waiting for Audi to takeover.
So far this season, Alfa has only scored four top-ten finishes, results that were equally shared between Bottas and teammate Zhou Guanyu.
Last weekend's outcome at the Hungaroring was particularly disappointing given the pair's strong performance in qualifying that positioned Zhou fifth on last Sunday's grid, with Bottas two spots behind.
"We definitely expected more from Budapest, especially taking into consideration the solid performance we had put up in qualifying," acknowledged Bottas.
"As a positive, we got confirmation that the fine tuning that has been done ever since we brought the new aero package has been working, and I am looking forward to being back on track again to unlock further potential from our car.
"Indeed, we wanted more from these first eleven races, but we are just halfway through the championship, and everything can still turn in our favour."
Bottas believes that Alfa's shortfall this season isn't rooted in one specific issue but rather in a combination of small deficiencies.
"I think that we were expecting to take the next step, but there’s not one particular area of the car, the team or the factory that is lagging, it’s just a lot of small things combined on which we have to keep on working on, that’s the only solution," he said.
"We’re looking into the future and we’ll now make a clear plan. Obviously there have been quite a few changes in the team, in the management and some big roles, there’s more people coming later this year.
"So I feel there’s a bit of restructuring going on and the results of this won’t be seen this year, it’s going to be seen in the future."
©AlfaRomeo
Regarding Alfa's management changes, that saw former team boss Fred Vasseur migrate to Ferrari while former McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl took on the role of CEO of Sauber Motorsport, Bottas doesn't believe that the changes contributed to Alfa missing its "targets".
"By targets I meant where we wanted to be in all areas of the car, mechanical, aerodynamical, tyre usage, etc," explained the ten-time Grand Prix winner.
"Obviously nowadays the cars are heavily impacted by the aerodynamics, that’s how it goes, and the level we started from wasn’t where we wanted to be.
"I don’t think that we missed those targets because of the people who made the decisions, I don’t think there were any delays coming from it.
"The restructure won’t make things faster but I think the main thing was that some teams were able to discover more over the winter and we kind of missed out."
©AlfaRomeo
The Finn also made clear that Alfa was by no means dealing with its situation on a day-by-day basis, waiting for Audi to take over.
"Looking from the outsider it could look that way, that we’re just waiting for Audi to come and so on, but that’s not the case," Bottas said.
"Everyone is flat out, everyone is pushing so that we’re not standing still.
"It’s just that the field is now so competitive that if you don’t start the season quite up there, then it’s difficult to come back up. We’re pushing, we’re not standing still."
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