The middle of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season has been rather unfortunate for Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN‘s rookie, Guanyu Zhou. However, his fortunes may be changing as a tenth place finish at the Italian Grand Prix would mark the Chinese driver’s first points in seven races.
The number twenty-four driver explained that he is ‘really happy’ with the result, after a late-race scrap with Nick De Vries before the Safety Car was deployed:
“I am really happy with today’s result and with the work that has been done in the past few weeks; it’s been a tough journey since Montreal, because we were very strong at the beginning of the season and then our performances had a dip; but being back in the points today is an amazing feeling, a great result both for the team and for Alfa Romeo.
“We knew we had a chance today, our pace was good and it allowed us to be in the fight with the other teams. We have a couple of weeks off now, which will give us time to rest after the triple-header and, above all, to analyze what worked this weekend and what went wrong in the previous races, to come prepared and motivated ahead of the next ones.
As Formula 1 prepares to race in Singapore and Japan, Zhou says that he is looking forward to the seeing his fans.
“I am looking forward to the Asian double-header, as the races will be closer to home and there will be several fans coming to support me,” the number twenty-four driver concluded.
“My race was compromised at turn one” says Bottas after unfortunate collision
The Italian Grand Prix weekend was already compromised for Valtteri Bottas, who was forced to take a fifteen-place grid drop for replacing his power unit components. The Finn has had terrible luck recently, retiring from the Hungarian, Belgian and Dutch Grand Prix’, none of which were his fault.
As the five red lights went out at Monza, Bottas took it easy going into the incredibly narrow Turn One, before unfortunately hitting Kevin Magnussen in the middle of the corner. A domino effect then started, when the other Haas F1 Team car of Mick Schumacher hit the back of Bottas, causing damage. The number seventy-seven driver explained that a combination of wing damage and going into anti-stall caused him to drop a lot of positions.
“We had good pace today, so it’s disappointing not to be in the points: in the end, my race was compromised at turn one when I was hit from behind and I hit the car ahead. I had damage to the front wing, having lost the endplate, and then the car went into antistall: before I could get back going, I had lost a lot of ground and I was last.
“The car was clearly good, as I was able to make a decent recovery, but the damage still made it quite tricky: at least, the team got a point with Zhou so we have something to show for today. I’m looking forward to the mini-break ahead of us now, before we go full push for the end of the season. We know we can score points and I really want to finish the year in a stronger place than we are now.”
The Singapore Grand Prix, an infamously intensive race on the drivers’ mind and bodies, is in three Sundays’ time, where Bottas will be hoping for a trouble-free weekend.
