Valtteri Bottas endured a disappointing Spanish Grand Prix last weekend, with the Finn having finished P19 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Despite having been amongst the top 10 on Friday, Bottas severely struggled for any real pace throughout Saturday and Sunday, resulting in a Q1 elimination in qualifying.
Bottas could only salvage 16th on the grid for Sunday’s race following a bizarre session, where he “knew” the car wasn’t right.
Due to parc ferme conditions, Alfa Romeo weren’t able to investigate Bottas’ lack of pace, something which appeared to be non-driver related given how good he was on Friday during free practice.
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Bottas was really slow during the race and only managed to finish ahead of Williams’ Logan Sargeant, marking a weekend to forget.
However, Bottas revealed on social media after the race that Alfa Romeo discovered “significant floor damage”, giving an answer as to why he struggled so much.
“I knew something was not right today, and we found significant floor damage post-race which was costing aero performance,” wrote Bottas in an Instagram story.
“That meant no chance to fight for points today.
“Well done @ZhouGuanyu24 for picking up couple points for us @AlfaRomeoStake today! Let’s get some more in Montreal.”
Charles Leclerc was another driver who complained of his car not feeling right during qualifying and the race in Spain, with the Monegasque having still been unhappy on Sunday despite the entire rear of his SF-23 having been replaced.
With Alfa Romeo being a Ferrari customer team, perhaps Bottas’ and Leclerc’s issues were linked, something which perhaps might be investigated back at Maranello and Hinwil.
Prior to revealing the news about the floor damage, Bottas told the media that something had to be wrong, with the Finn having complained of a “lack of overall grip”.
“For me it’s pretty clearly there was something not right with the car, because I was more than one second per lap off, just sliding around,” Bottas said, as reported by Speedcafe.com.
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“Whether it was a mechanical or aero issue I cannot say, because the balance was not, like, way off, but it was just lack of overall grip.
“So, we’ll see if there’s something damaged in the car.
“Either something mechanical has been installed wrongly, before qualifying, something that affects the ride height or something, or there’s something aero-wise.”