If the plan of the Hinwil team was to promote Théo Pourchaire to the role of Valtteri Bottas' teammate, then Guanyu Zhou has put 'water on the ice'. The Chinese driver's good performance level pleases Hinwil's team internally and everything indicates that plans for the future should change
Guanyu Zhou is pleasing Alfa Romeo to such an extent that his unlikely stay at the team beyond 2022 is now a real possibility. According to the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport and the Swiss newspaper Blick, Hinwil-based team boss Frédéric Vasseur is convinced that the first Chinese driver in Formula 1 history deserves a contract extension.
Alfa Romeo's sporting director Beat Zehnder has hinted that the team will not send the 23-year-old driver away after just one season and called Zhou "one of the best rookies" the Hinwil team has ever had on its driver roster.
"Normally, with rookies, you always have to count on one or two hits. But Zhou hardly makes any mistakes. Experience tells us that there must be a collision at some point in the future, but this is also part of the learning process. He is definitely one of the best rookies we have ever had in our team," said Zehnder.
The wave of praise for Zhou has not just begun. Recently, Xevi Pujolar, head of track engineering at Alfa Romeo, and Frédéric Vasseur, team boss, said that the main virtue of the Chinese rookie is his maturity, and also his ability to manage tires.
Pujolar went further and stated that if Zhou can turn the good level of performance into his standard performance, then the Chinese will have "a great future in Formula 1″.
After his best result of the year - 8th place in Montreal - Zhou will be looking to keep the momentum going in his favor in the 2022 Formula 1 season at Silverstone for the British GP, the 10th round of the season.GRANDE PRÊMIO followsLIVE and IN REAL TIME all the activities of the weekend.