Valtteri Bottas admits ‘one big thing’ Stake F1 Team must change from Alfa Romeo

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Valtteri Bottas has now admitted the one ‘big thing’ that Stake F1 Team must change from the Sauber-run outfit’s time called Alfa Romeo as they embark on a new dawn.

The Hinwil, Switzerland-based squad have entered a new era in 2024 after the conclusion of Alfa Romeo’s title sponsorship deal. It had named Sauber’s Formula 1 team for the past five seasons. But the Italian car manufacturer parted with Sauber ahead of Audi’s arrival in 2026.

Sauber will become Audi’s works team when the German automotive giants, finally, join the travelling circus of Formula 1. Yet the team reached a new title sponsorship deal with Stake for the interim years. But Bottas wants to see further changes as Alfa Romeo become Stake.

Sauber renamed from Alfa Romeo to Stake for the 2024 F1 season

Bottas will embark on his third season with Sauber in 2024 after switching from Mercedes in 2022. He also enjoyed a strong first year racing with Alfa Romeo to finish 10th in the drivers’ standings. But the 34-year-old slipped to 15th in 2023 with only 10 points to his previous 49.

Alfa Romeo also slipped from sixth in the constructors’ championship with 55 points in 2022 to ninth with 16. Zhou Guanyu only scored six points over both of the 24-year-old’s first two seasons in Formula 1 with the team. He secured three P9 finishes in 2023 for his only points.

Bottas, too, only finished in the points at four Grand Prix in 2023 – with P8 results in Bahrain and Qatar plus P10 results in Canada and Italy. The Finn had finished in the points at nine of the 22 races in 2022. He also took points in seven of Bottas’ first nine races with Alfa Romeo.

Valtteri Bottas admits where Stake F1 Team must now improve

Now, Bottas admits that Stake must improve how the Sauber-run squad deliver upgrades to their car compared to the F1 team’s time as Alfa Romeo. The 10-time Grand Prix winner felt it took the team too long to identify areas to improve, build the parts and get them on a track.

“For us at the moment, the way we can turn around upgrades,” he told Motorsport.com. “At the moment, we find something in the wind tunnel, how long it takes to actually get it in the car [must improve]. That’s, I would say, one quite big thing compared to some other things.”

Sauber have already moved to address the time it took them to produce upgrades by hiring James Key from McLaren. He switched from the Woking squad to Hinwil back in September as their technical director. The engineer had the same role with McLaren until March 2023.