The 2022 season will see only one rookie present in Formula 1: Guanyu Zhou. The Chinese driver, after spending three years in Formula 2 with the UNI-Virtuosi team and having obtained third place in the standings as his best result behind Oscar Piastri and Robert Shwartzman in 2021, will have the opportunity to wear the colors of Alfa Romeo Sauber.
Zhou, who has already had the opportunity to test the Swiss team’s car during the end-of-season tests staged on the Abu Dhabi track, will have Valtteri Bottas as teammate and underlined how much the Finn can be a point of reference for him this debut season.
“For a rookie there can be no better companion than Bottas in his debut season. I am aware that to stay ahead of him I will have to work a lot and adapt quickly not only to the car, but also to the entire Formula 1 environment ”.
“However, I believe that Valtteri can help me in the learning curve. He is an open minded driver who likes to share information and discuss with both the team and me. This is a great advantage “.
Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo Racing C39 mule
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“He has achieved many podiums and victories in Formula 1, and also on the grid there are not many drivers able to stay ahead of Lewis Hamilton in qualifying. I think he will be an excellent point of reference and a great teammate. I hope that together we will be able to make the whole team progress ”.
Zhou remains a big question mark. The Chinese in the minor categories alternated days in which he drove flawlessly with others where he made gross errors. What will your goal be for 2022?
“I want to score points, but I still have no idea how competitive the car will be and I will have to wait until the start of the season to get a complete picture.”
“I would like to go to the points straight away, but I think I won’t go into crisis at the beginning of the year if I don’t manage to reach this goal in the first two races. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself ”.
“I want to enjoy the races in Formula 1, learn from my teammate and the engineers and improve in many aspects. I am sure that if I make this progress the results will come as a consequence ”.
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