Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen enters this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix looking to rebound after a tough showing around the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit last weekend.
Valtteri Bottas’ race came to an impromptu end after attempting to avoid a skirmish with Nicholas Latifi, the Finn found himself beached in the gravel at Les Combes.
Last time out in Zandvoort, Bottas was able to secure a trip to the podium after finishing third behind Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
After such a promising start to the season with his new team, Bottas has now faced back-to-back retirements in Belgium and Hungary and has also been unable to secure a points finish since the Canadian Grand Prix.
Bottas enters this weekend’s Grand Prix optimistic that his point-less streak will come to it’s long-awaited end this weekend in the Netherlands.
“A new race week gives us the opportunity to recover straight away from an unfortunate weekend in Spa. I enjoyed racing in Zandvoort last year, where I also finished on the podium. It was disappointing to end last weekend’s race after only two laps, as the pace we went on showing with Zhou was good and I was confident we could have done well: with that pace as our starting point, we have the opportunity to build a strong performance for the weekend ahead, coming back with some points. The fans here are of course very passionate, so we will make sure to put up a good show for them.”
Zhou Guanyu: “our pace on track was promising, so hopefully we can keep up with it in Zandvoort”
Credit: Florent Gooden / DPPI
With just two points scoring finishes to his name so far in his rookie season, Zhou Guanyu isn’t letting his confidence fade just yet.
Zhou believes that despite his fourteenth-place finish in Spa, the pace shown by the C42 in Belgium was promising, had the twenty-three-year-old been starting higher up the grid he believes he could have secured a finish inside the points.
Ahead of this weekend, the Alfa Romeo rookie is joined by Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon in being the only drivers on the grid to have not raced a Formula One car around the Zandvoort circuit.
However, Zhou took pole position in European Formula Three in 2018 around Zandvoort and would go on to secure a second-place finish with Nikita Troitskiy claiming the victory on the day.
Despite his past experience in 2018, Zhou has spoken on how he will have to adapt quickly to racing a Formula One car for the very first time around Zandvoort.
“We clearly wanted more from the weekend in Spa, but we were aware that taking penalties and starting from the back meant it would be a tall order to finish in the points. Despite that, our pace on track was promising, so hopefully we can keep up with it in Zandvoort.
“The track will be relatively new to me: I previously raced here in F3 a few years ago, so it will be important to adapt to it in a Formula 1 car as quickly as possible, to qualify in a good place on the grid and get ourselves in the mix during the race to score some points. We know we can do it but it will be a matter of executing our weekend right from start to finish.”