Zhou: 'I went through everything an F1 driver goes through in 10 years'

Zhou Guanyu, the only rookie in Formula 1 this year, has made a promising start at Alfa Romeo. With action now halted for the summer break, the Chinese driver looks back on a stressful but impressive start to his season. He also hints at his future in the premier class of motor sport.

Although Zhou says he is 'impressed' with his growth so far, he is disappointed with the reliability problems he has had. This would have reduced his chances of more top ten finishes. "If I look back at it, I’m quite impressed at the job that I’ve done, and also the progression I was able to make from Bahrain and onwards," the Alfa Romeo driver said in conversation with Formula1.com.

"For 11 races or 10 races down, I felt like I went through every single thing an F1 driver goes through in 10 years," Zhou continues. Of course, he is referring in part to his terrible crash at Silverstone, in which he went off the track at high speed and ended up behind the crash barrier.

He was able to tick off his most important objectives; reaching Q3 and scoring points. The latter the Chinese driver managed twice, but he thinks it could have happened more often if Alfa Romeo had not had reliability problems. All in all, Zhou is certainly satisfied with his first half of the season and he is confident that his team thinks the same. "Right now, I don’t feel I need to worry about next year, even though I think around summer time, Spa is the time to talk about the future."