Alfa Romeo confident of Guanyu Zhou Australia fix

Zhou in Saudi Arabia — Photo: © LAT Images

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo confident of Zhou Australia fix

Alfa Romeo is hopeful it can fix the start issues suffered by Zhou in the early races

Sam Hall

Tuesday 5 April 2022 16:29

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Alfa Romeo head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar is confident the team "has a solution" for the issues suffered by Guanyu Zhou in the early races of the season.

Both Valtteri Bottas and his rookie team-mate Zhou have struggled to get their Alfa Romeos off the grid this year.

Although Bottas suffered less of a problem in Saudi Arabia, Zhou's C42 went into anti-stall through the first chicane with the Chinese driver dropping several positions as a result.

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“The anti-stall is something that we need to go through with Zhou [but] there was nothing wrong with the car," explained Pujolar.

"He has got the feeling that the revs were still okay but that is not okay because they were too low. We need to see what we can do to mitigate that issue in the future because now it has happened twice.

“I think the performance is okay, but it was not the main issue. Valtteri was able to keep position so we were there and with Zhou, the start was not great but it was okay.

“It was just that anti-stall again so it is something that we will have a solution for at the next race."

Zhou "needs to understand" problems

After losing positions at the start, Zhou recovered to finish the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 11th, just one point shy of adding to his point from the Bahrain season-opener.

“Everything is working as expected but for him, it is just something that he needs to understand," added Pujolar.

“But there are different ways to solve that problem and we will have a look for what is the best way to do it for Melbourne.”