The news has been long overdue, and it appears the team made the decision late last month, waiting until the start of the 2022 Asian tour to announce that Guanyu Zhou will continue with Alfa Romeo for another year.
In the week of the Singapore Grand Prix, the Hinwil team announced that they are extending the contract of the only Chinese driver in the history of Formula 1 until the end of the 2023 course, so he will be with Valtteri Bottas in the last year of Alfa Romeo as main sponsor an.
Zhou scored points on his F1 debut, at the opening round in Bahrain, and took eighth place in Canada, as well as a further tenth place in Italy. With six races remaining in the season, he is 17th overall but has not made any big mistakes despite being a rookie.
In a year in which he starred in the greatest moment of tension with his spectacular accident at Silverstone, the team says it is “impressed with his commitment and attitude”, and points out that the Chinese “has contributed to advancing the simulation program and has not left a stone unturned to get the full potential of the C42”.
The boss of Alfa Romeo, Frédéric Vasseur , believes that it has been one of the surprises of 2022, and that next year he will take another step: “I am looking forward to continuing to work with Zhou, from the first day with us in the Abu Dhabi from last season, he has impressed me with the way he works, and that is always a very positive thing.”
“We knew he was fast, but the way he has adapted in Formula 1 in such a short time has been one of the best surprises of our year,” said the Frenchman. “He is a very good guy, everyone likes to have him in the team, both because of his personality and his attitude.”
“He has had the humility to ask and learn, both from the engineers and Valtteri [Bottas], and the intelligence to apply all the information he got to improve race after race,” Vasseur continued. “He will have that experience to build on next season, and I’m sure he will take another step forward as we continue to grow our team.”
For his part, the newly renewed Zhou said: “Coming to Formula 1 was a dream come true, and the feeling of competing for the first time in a race will be with me forever. The team has supported me in an incredible way, from the first moment, and helping me to adapt to the most complex category of motorsport”.
“There are things I want to achieve in this sport, and with the team, and the hard work we have done since the beginning of the year is just the first step towards where we want to be next season,” said the Chinese. “There is still a lot to learn, to develop, but I trust our work, I am looking forward to the next chapter of our history together”
Do you want to read our news before anyone else and for free? Follow us here on our Telegram channel and you won’t miss a thing. All the information, at your fingertips!
