For the second year running Alfa Romeo missed the mark at the start of the season. But unlike in 2022 when it had to work through various teething problems, this year Alfa's C43 challenger has been a well-balanced platform.
Instead, its problem in a tight midfield battle has been a lack of pure performance which has made scoring points a difficult prospect.
Bottas and team-mate Zhou Guanyu have mustered a combined tally of six points across the first four races, keeping Alfa eighth in the constructors' standings and falling behind on its pre-season expectations.
While Bottas appreciates that the car is much more benign and balanced than its predecessor, he said on Thursday ahead of this weekend's Miami Grand Prix that it was arguably "worse" to lack downforce than to have a clear balance issue that can yield quick lap time gain once addressed.
"It's probably worse, if I'm honest," reflected Bottas. "If we knew that we could correct this balance issue, we could gain three tenths.
"That's not the case now. Everything we can do is to work hard and a lot of that is obviously work at the factory.
"The nice thing is that it's super close. Obviously, we're not where we want to be, but at least we know that if we can find some lap time, then that can actually make decent gains in the results. And that's of course the target.
"The handling is the improved from last year, but it's lacking that pure performance compared to the others. It is better than last year's car, but the others have made bigger steps."
Source: Autosport