Valtteri Bottas has backed his Alfa Romeo teammate Zhou Guanyu to shine in his second F1 season this year.
Zhou Guanyu became the first Chinese driver in F1 when he made the leap from F2 in 2022 to take Antonio Giovinazzi’s place. He was paired with the experienced Valtteri Bottas, who left Mercedes after a five-year stint to take the seat vacated by retired former world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
The Finn took on the role of mentor as the pair worked well together to lead Alfa Romeo to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship standings in 2022. While Bottas did most of the heavy lifting in the points department, his teammate finished in the points on three occasions, including his debut in Bahrain last year.
Zhou Guanyu was also involved in a death-defying accident at Silverstone, but was able to escape the incident unharmed.
Looking ahead to the season opener at Sakhir later this week, Valtteri Bottas believes that Zhou Guanyo has grown and evolved as a driver. In an interview with Total Motorsport, he said:
“It’s been nice to see that his development curve has been quite steep since the start of last year. He’s almost become a different driver in a way.” [He’s become] much more confident in his driving, feedback, racing and qualifying, so he had a good rookie season overall.
“He made very few mistakes and got some points as well. He’s going to get a lot more points this year for sure, and he’ll be a good teammate to fight with.”
However, the main objective for the pair is to work as a team and see if they can find any more performance-enhanced Alfa Romeo C43 this time around.
The 33-year-old added:
“But the main thing is that we’ll be able to work well together like last year. So I’m looking forward to it. I think he’s shown over the past year that he belongs in F1 and obviously this year is another test.” for the driver [But] I have no worries, [he’ll] be okay.”
Valtteri Bottas aims to return to the podium with Alfa Romeo in 2023
Valtteri Bottas is looking forward to getting back on the F1 podium again in his second season with Alfa Romeo.
The Finnish driver had a successful season at Mercedes alongside Lewis Hamilton before moving to Sauber last season. While he enjoyed a run of positive results at the start of the season, the highlight of which was a P5 finish at Imola, the team’s performance declined as the campaign progressed.
Now in his second year with the Zurich-based team, Valtteri Bottas hopes to improve his performance and that of the team in 2023.
While speaking to Reuters during the launch event for the Alfa Romeo C43, the 33-year-old said:
“The goal for this season is to finish higher than last year and be much more consistent. Last year we had too many ups and downs. Also, secretly, I always dream of finishing on the podium, so let’s see.”
Bottas has not been on the podium since the 2021 F1 Saudi Arabian GP when he was driving for Mercedes. It would be no feat if he found his way back there with Alfa Romeo this year.