Alfa Romeo’s trackside engineering director Xevi Pujolar has praised Zhou Guanyu for “raising his game” in the early stages of 2023.
Despite scoring points on debut in Bahrain, Zhou had a slow start to his rookie Formula 1 campaign and only amassed six points to Valtteri Bottas’ vastly superior tally of 49, despite the Finn only managing to accrue three points beyond the ninth round of 2022.
Zhou improved as the season progressed but to little avail, as Alfa Romeo hit a steep decline in competitiveness after its strong start and only added four more points in the final 13 races.
While the Italian marque has been a model of inconsistency again at the beginning of the latest season, Zhou has continued on the upwards momentum he built up in the latter stages of last year to defeat Bottas in both weekends to be held since Bahrain.
Pujolar suggests that Alfa Romeo’s two drivers are now operating at an equal level and believes that installs a handy benchmark for the team as it aims to enhance its on-track performance.
“I think Zhou is raising the game. And I would say now they are both quite even,” he issued via Autosport.
“That’s good for us. Qualifying [in Australia] was not ideal, but in the last two qualifying sessions they are close to Q3, both of them and that’s good for the team.”
Having mastered a handling imbalance the better of the two Alfa Romeo drivers throughout the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend, Zhou got his reward for beating Bottas home again in Australia.
A red flag late in the race prompted a standing restart with only three laps to run, resulting in chaos ensuing that included both Alpine cars ending up in the barrier.
Zhou was one such driver who proceeded to take advantage of the carnage directly ahead of him to scoop his first points of the year with ninth place.
Ahead of the Melbourne weekend, Zhou had stated that “it’s good to be feeling confident for the first race of the year which I wasn’t last year this time.”
Drawing on those comments, Pujolar asserts an added degree of self-confidence has been the primary reason behind Zhou’s noticeable improvement in his sophomore year.
“He’s more confident,” he addressed. “The car is a different car but in Formula 1 with the tyres… even the tyres have changed a bit, but still it’s the same with the team.
“And then working with Valtteri as well and that’s how we can [make steps] with both drivers together. And it gives himself confidence as well.”
The 23-year-old’s two points represented Alfa Romeo’s second points haul of the year and has left the Sauber-owned team eighth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Prior to ending a six-race points drought dating back to last season in Australia, Zhou was confident that Alfa Romeo was not far away from fighting for the lower reaches of the top 10 on merit.
But he has called on the Hinwil-based team to ensure it refines the smaller details to be in a position to score points more frequently for the remainder of the year.
“It’s clear there are three or four teams clearly ahead of the rest – but then I think from P8 downwards it is very tight. Everybody can be grabbing these final points finishes, which is the target.
“We’re not too far away from this. So it’s just the little details that can really make the difference in the midfield.”
