Valtteri Bottas is loving life at Alfa Romeo this season, which he described as more of a "racing team" compared to the "company" feel of his former employer Mercedes.
Bottas spent five seasons with the Silver Arrows, contributing to one of the most dominant periods in Formula 1 history. Mercedes won the constructors' championship in every season he was on the books, but still things were difficult for the Finn.
He very much lived in the shadow of Lewis Hamilton during that time, with the Brit completely dominant. Plus, a series of one-year contract extensions never gave him the security he felt he needed to produce his best performances.
Now racing for Alfa Romeo, he is tied down to a multi-year deal and is working his team principal Frederic Vasseur, who he knows very well from his time racing in GP3 a decade ago. He is no longer in the hunt for race wins, but still he is enjoying the challenge more and comes across a lot happier than he has been for a long time.
And Bottas puts a lot of that down to being away from the "company" environment he was used to at Mercedes, with all the focus now on the racing. "The context I'm in now is less 'company' and more racing team, but everyone's motivation is the same," he told Motorsport.com.
"It was very nice to start the season right away by winning points in Bahrain, I think that weekend gave an extra boost, the team realised that there would be other races where we would be able to finish in the top 10.
"That 'boost' is still there, when we don't get points I see the team disappointed, and that's the spirit. Then, of course, the targets are different to what I had to achieve last year, but in the end the approach is the same, in 2021 the target was to win, today it's top 10."
Engine reliability problems and some unfortunate pieces of other damage have hampered his races in recent times, but still he has 46 points to show for his efforts so far this season. That puts him 10th in the drivers' standings, with only racers representing Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Alpine ahead of him.
Bottas wants to put recent bad luck behind him to progress even further in the final six races of the year. "I haven't finished two of the last three races, in Spa due to an accident and in Zandvoort due to a technical problem," he added. "Reliability is a top priority for us, as it is also for [engine supplier] Ferrari, but there is still work to be done."
