Bottas admits Alfa Romeo need to improve race starts

Valtteri Bottas has opened up on Alfa Romeo’s problems regarding race starts, stating that “50% of them had been bad” during testing.

Though Bottas finished the Bahrain GP 6th, he did not have a good getaway and dropped down from to 14th at the start. The Finn revealed that Alfa Romeo struggled in that aspect from the pre-season testing.

“Honestly, I was not so confident going to the grid because 50% of the starts we’ve had in practice and testing had been bad,” he said.

“It’s an area we need to work on. I just had a big wheelspin. I cooked the rear tires, still wheelspinning on third gear, and then the first lap I was sliding around and being a bit of a sitting duck.

“It’s a mechanical thing, that sometimes we have this vibration on the clutch. It happens 50% of the time.

“And when that happens it’s quite easy to break the traction. So yeah, it’s on the list and we’re working on it.”