Bottas earns endearing Zhou verdict

Ewan Gale
Tuesday 9 August 2022 18:09

Zhou Guanyu has praised the impact Valtteri Bottas has made as his first F1 team-mate at Alfa Romeo.

Chinese rookie Zhou has impressed throughout the opening 13 races with competitive pace and a grounded demeanour, especially in the face of adversity.

His talents have been let down by a spate of reliability issues on Alfa Romeo's side and as such Zhou has amassed only five points compared to Bottas' 46.

The Finn has implemented his vast F1 experience from terms at Williams and Mercedes alongside Felipe Massa and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in order to improve the fortunes at Alfa Romeo, with Zhou full of admiration for Bottas' efforts and aid in getting up to speed.

"He is one of the best team-mates I have ever had in all the series," said Zhou.

"The last one that was as good as him was Callum [Ilott at UNI Virtuosi in F2]. It has been great.

"Coming from Valtteri's experience... to elevate me, try to help me, especially from pre-season testing in Bahrain and all that time he was able to be there with me - whatever I need and just give me the guide and give me the tips.

"It has been very useful and I wouldn't be improving that much without him because he is older, more experienced than me so we are not fighting together for the seat, we are pushing together to help the team have good results for us.

"So it is good, you don't have that inside-team divide."

Additional reporting by Ian Parkes