Long weeks of negotiation, to then arrive at a just happy ending. Alfa Romeo has indeed communicated Guanyu Zhou's contract renewal until 2024. The Chinese, therefore, will still remain alongside Valtteri Bottas with the aim - starting from next season - of improving the team's current ninth position in the constructors' standings.
Zhou renews with Alfa Romeo
Although an agreement was reached, for Zhou they were certainly not easy weeks. The Chinese had repeatedly spoken of his desire to renew with Alfa Romeo and how the entry of Audi - which will be linked to Sauber from 2026 - slowed down the conversation quite a bit. There are also several drivers investigated by Alfa Romeo as hypothetical replacements for Zhou, such as Pourchaire and Drugovich, but in the end it was the experience that triumphed Circus of Chinese.
The Alfa Romeo press release
To announce the renewal of Zhou was Alfa Romeo itself via a post on its social profiles. Clearly, the words of team principal Alessandro Alunni Bravi were not lacking: “The decision to continue our journey leaving our line-up unchanged is undoubtedly an investment we have decided to make in our project. Nothing in Formula 1 changes after the night and we have made a conscious decision to focus on stability and continuing to build our team together considering the important transition period we will embark on."
"Valtteri and Zhou are riders whose talent we all know and I must say that they work really well together: they are close-knit and can help each other. Valtteri took the role of leader with the team, pushing each of us to give our best; Zhou, on the other hand, has had an impressive improvement in the last two years and we expect him to continue like this in 2024".
All the joy of Zhou
Obviously they couldn't miss it the words of Zhou who commented on his stay at Alfa Romeo in this way: “Signing with the team again is always a special feeling especially when we know how things are going. I am proud to still be an Alfa Romeo driver and I thank them for the trust they placed in me. I have been working hard since I signed for this team and I have an incredible level of motivation to continue like this, growing more and more, every single day."
"My relationship with Valtteri – continued Zhou – it's really good: we work closely together and with the team to try to push and improve more and more. I admit that I am at the same time excited for the opportunity to race my home GP in China next year, in front of my home crowd. It will be a fantastic moment and I am proud to be able to share this event with all the people who support me”.
