According to Valtteri Bottas, Guanyu Zhou hardly made any mistakes in his first year in Formula 1 as the Finn explained to Autosport. The Chinese driver took six points in his debut season and finished 18th in the championship.

Zhou made the switch to Formula 1 with Alfa Romeo last year and formed a whole new line-up at the Swiss team, alongside Bottas, who came over from Mercedes. While Bottas was responsible for 49 of Alfa Romeo's 55 points in 2022, Zhou garnered praise for his performance during his rookie season with the best result being eighth place at the Canadian Grand Prix.

No mistakes

Bottas said Zhou's performance took him completely by surprise. He also praised the Chinese driver for making no mistakes, which is not guaranteed as a rookie. He also calls it a sport where it is easy to try too much and too hard and make stupid mistakes. According to Bottas, the strength therefore lies in the fact that he has given himself time to develop and not want things too quickly.

Zhou made great strides with his pace in the second half of the season. He regularly challenged Bottas and did enough to force a contract extension at Alfa Romeo for 2023. Bottas concluded by saying that he and Zhou made a good team and that there was a lot of respect back and forth and that is needed for a fine collaboration.