Bottas "doesn't hide anything" - Zhou reveals key to Alfa Romeo relationship

Additional reporting by Ewan Gale

Alfa Romeo driver Zhou Guanyu has lauded Valtteri Bottas for his leadership across their first F1 season together.

Zhou made his debut by scoring at the Bahrain Grand Prix and although points were hard to come by beyond that, reliability issues and unfortunate circumstances during races masked his true performance.

This was achieved whilst becoming the first Chinese driver in F1 and having to dismiss claims he was there for his commercial interests for the team and not his outright talent.

Helping Zhou get up to speed was the relationship he had with Bottas, who had made the step down from Mercedes.

The Finn provided assistance to Zhou knowing that teamwork would be needed to find improvement for the Hinwil-based outfit.

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"He's very open," said Zhou, speaking in an end-of-season interview with GPFans. "He doesn’t hide anything.

“It was great to see two cars really working together, great team play.

"I do always think about what's best for the team, or when we are on track, to help each other with position if someone's fighting for the points.

"It's a good atmosphere, and after that, it’s about building up the relationship.

“He's always giving advice, especially the first, let's say, six races because that's where it was a bit of the unknown for me.

“To get this advice from him was just really useful because he'd done it - a rookie to gaining 10 years experience.

“It's something I want to go through, so it’s been good to have him next to me.”

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