Alfa Romeo Remain Focused on 2023 Plans Despite Audi’s 2026 Arrival – Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas says that whilst the news that Audi Sport will link-up with the Sauber F1 Team ahead of the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, their focus remains on getting the most out of the 2023 campaign.

For the final time in 2023, Sauber will be known as Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, ending a five-year partnership with the Italian marque, and Bottas will again race for the team he joined ahead of the 2022 season alongside Zhou Guanyu.

The team finished an encouraging sixth in the Constructors’ Championship in 2022, with Bottas scoring the bulk of Alfa Romeo’s points tally, his fifth-place finish in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix marking his best finish of the season.

Audi will join the team in 2026 when the new engine regulations come into play, but despite the distraction of the future link-up, Bottas is certain the team are focused on the current and will be looking to better what they achieved in 2022.

“Everyone has understood that for this team it’s a great opportunity in the future, which definitely gives good stability,” said Bottas to GPFans.com. 

“Once everything was announced, everyone talked about it, and then it was like ‘Okay, back to work, and let’s focus for this year and next year’ because, obviously, next year nothing changes, we’re still Alfa Romeo.”

One move that has happened since the Audi news was made public has been the signing of Andreas Seidl as the Sauber Group’s new Chief Executive Officer, and Bottas feels the imminent arrival of the German marque has brought a lot of positivity to the Hinwil-based outfit.

“Everyone still feels like that Audi thing is quite far away but everyone feels it’s positive in the future,” Bottas added.