“It’s not guaranteed as a rookie,” Valtteri Bottas feels Zhou Guanyu’s biggest strength in 2022 was the lack of mistakes

Apart from pointing out Zhou's biggest strength, Bottas also commented on their working relationship.

“It’s not guaranteed as a rookie,” Valtteri Bottas feels Zhou Guanyu’s biggest strength in 2022 was the lack of mistakes

Zhou Guanyu (L) and Valtteri Bottas (R)

In 2022, Zhou Guanyu had a solid first F1 season with Alfa Romeo. While Valtteri Bottas scored a majority of the team’s points (49/55) – the points gap between the two is not exactly indicative of the actual performance gap. Obviously, the Finnish driver was better. But he scored 46 out of his 49 points in and before the Canadian GP, which was only the ninth race of the season. Back then, Zhou would still have been learning the ropes. After Canada, the car’s performance fell considerably.

It’s rather telling that Canada was Alfa Romeo’s highest-scoring weekend. So while Zhou’s points tally isn’t amazing compared to his teammate, all things considered, he had a decent season. The many mechanical problems that plagued the team definitely didn’t help him for a rhythm. His teammate also adds one more thing that he felt was Zhou’s biggest strength – the absence of mistakes.

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In an interview with Autosport, Bottas said: “The biggest strength this year has been that he really hasn’t made any mistakes.” Formula 1 is always on the limit, if you go too far, you will pay for it. Push too much, and you might just find yourself in the barriers. The Finn pointed this out: “It’s not guaranteed as a rookie, and it’s a sport where it’s easy to try too much and too hard and make silly mistakes.”

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Bottas also added that Zhou’s technical knowledge is constantly improving: “But he’s been good on giving himself some time to develop and not wanting things too quickly. He’s been able to progress step by step, both in qualifying pace and then in race pace. His technical knowledge is getting better and better, he’s getting more confident on choosing the set-up for him. It’s been good to see the progress.” Clearly, he did well enough for Alfa Romeo to extend his contract.

Related: Zhou Guanyu opens up on learning under Valtteri Bottas in 2022

Valtteri Bottas feels he and Zhou Guanyu can work together ‘really well’

Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas (IMAGO / PanoramiC)
Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas (IMAGO / PanoramiC)

Zhou Guanyu has earlier given insights on his working relationship with Valtteri Bottas – while Zhou was still learning, the Finnish driver was able to ‘make the difference’ for the team, looking like a very solid midfield runner throughout the first half of the season. After that, Alfa Romeo simply got out developed. But it was enough for P6 in the championship. Interestingly, he finished ahead of Daniel Ricciardo – whose team scored 104 points more than Bottas’ team.

Like Zhou, Bottas also feel that the two of them have a productive working relationship. He feels this is important for a team like Alfa Romeo, who want to climb up the field: “We can work together really well. That’s important for a team that is trying to make progress, because if you have team-mates that are crashing into each other on-track, it’s not helping anything.”

There’ll definitely be more expectations around Zhou next season. He’s shown himself to be a capable driver, but this will really be his opportunity to prove himself to the world. For 2023, there’s no real learning curve – he’s already had a season to get used to the sport. Of course, that’s not always enough, but he will obviously need to step it up further. Alfa Romeo (Sauber) will become Audi in 2026, and it’ll be interesting to see if he can stick around until and after that.

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