Zhou Guanyu reacts after Bahrain: “we can fight for points in every race”
If he finished only 16th, Guanyu Zhou stole the best time from Pierre Gasly in the last lap, a good move for Alfa Romeo starting the year ahead of Alpine.
Alfa Romeo leaves the Sakhir circuit with four points thanks to Valtteri Bottas finishing in eighth place. Guanyu Zhou, on the other hand, set the fastest time of the Bahrain Grand Prix. However, the Chinese driver only finished 16th and therefore does not benefit from the additional point for the fastest time, which is reserved for drivers who finish in the top 10. Speaking about this performance on the sidelines of the Grand Prix, he sees it as a good starting point.
« It’s a good starting point for all of us, and I was happy to contribute by setting the fastest lap in the final moments. The car felt better than in qualifying, which shows that we are heading in the right direction: we need to continue finding those margins to keep improving before the next races, and I know that everyone on track and in Switzerland is working towards that. As for tonight’s race, I struggled with a slight slip in the first lap, losing a few positions and getting stuck in a DRS train for most of the race. The VSC came out at the wrong time, and there wasn’t much to do to improve our position at that point. Nonetheless, we can take some positives from this race as a team, as we head to Saudi Arabia with the confidence that we can fight for points in every race. »
For Alfa Romeo, the essential thing was not just for Zhou to earn points, but especially for him to do better than Alpine, considered by the Swiss team as its main competitor. This instruction was followed as in the last lap, the driver managed to improve Pierre Gasly’s time, which gives Alfa Romeo a lead over the French team.
The team did a very good job tonight and we can be satisfied with the final result, which shows our continuous progress and the value of the work we did during pre-season testing: we were in the top five teams throughout the race, and we finished ahead of McLaren and Alpine, which is all we could hope to achieve tonight. […] There is still a lot of work to be done: we need to continue developing our car, as the battle we are engaged in this season will be exciting.
