About a week ago theAlfa Romeo on their own Social has published a post mysterious with a date – September 27 – and an unidentifiable detail, which immediately aroused interest and curiosity of enthusiasts. Sauber is one of the teams on pole for the partnership with Audi which will enter F1 in 2026 as announced officially during GP a SPA & WELLNESS. The indiscretion gained credibility when the Alfa Romeo, main sponsor of the Swiss team, ha announced, shortly after Audi's conference that it was due to exit F1 at the end of 2023. This has potentially given Audi a large enough working window to intervene.
Although the issue at Spa still seemed distant, with Audi's top management having declared they were looking for the right partner, Alfa Romeo's announcement had rekindled the hopes of enthusiasts. Many were waiting for the partnership to become official but this hypothesis has begun to waver with the publication of a second post, containing another clue. One was portrayed in the post tiger and the words "future“, always accompanied by the hashtag #KeepMakingHistory and a caption that read: “the next chapter starts tomorrow". September 27th arrived and with it the long-awaited announcement.
Alfa renews Guanyu Zhou
The tiger had actually put a worm in the minds of fans as 2022 is the year of the tiger in China, the motherland of, Guanyu-Zhou arrived in Alfa Romeo just this season. The Chinese rider, who inherited Antonio Giovinazzi's seat, did not have a contract that would allow him to be present in the Swiss team also in 2023. However, his place has hardly ever been questioned. Primarily because the young Chinese driver brings with him a rather important slice of the market, the Chinese one. Secondly, Zhou's rookie season, apart from the many retirements due to reliability problems, is proceeding at full speed. The team waited for the Asian trip for announce its renewal, which was commented with great enthusiasm, so much so that it made it an announcement in great pomp.
From the press release published on the Sauber website we read: “After making history as the first Chinese driver to compete in Formula 1, Zhou took to motorsport's biggest stage by scoring points in his debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix. He impressed the team with his commitment and attitude, forging a strong partnership with teammate, Valtteri Bottas, and showing progress in his performance, both in qualifying and in the race, round after round."
The statements
A great commitment also recognized by the Team Principal, Frederic Vasseur : "I look forward to continuing to work with Zhou. From his first day with the team, at the Abu Dhabi tests last year, he has impressed me with his approach to work and this is always a very positive trait. We knew he was fast, but the way he adapted to Formula 1 in such a short time was one of the best surprises of our season. He is a very nice guy, everyone in the team likes both his personality and his attitude. He had the humility to ask questions and learn, from engineers as well as Valtteri, and the intelligence to apply all the information he had to improve race after race. He will have this experience to draw on next season and I'm sure he will take another step forward as we continue to grow our team.".
These instead are the words of the young Chinese driver Guanyu Zhou: "I am happy and grateful to Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN for the opportunity to be part of the team for another season. Arriving in Formula 1 was a dream come true and the feeling of competing in a race for the first time will live with me forever - the team have been incredibly supportive, welcoming me from day one and helping me adapt to the more demanding series. motor sport complexes. There is more I want to achieve in this sport and with the team, and the hard work we have put together since the start of the year is just the first step towards where we want to be next season. There is still a lot to learn, a lot to develop, but I am confident in our work: I am looking forward to the next chapter of our story together".
