Bottas does not feel like he has regressed compared to Zhou

Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu are starting their second season together at Alfa Romeo. Zhou arrived as a rookie in F1 in 2022, while Bottas joined the team after spending five years with Mercedes.

If Bottas had surpassed the Chinese driver by 43 points during the 2022 season, Zhou seems to be giving him more trouble in 2023.

Asked if the battle was closer with Zhou this year, Bottas is honest and confirms a pace improvement between the two drivers. But when he was asked about the reasons for this situation, the Finn suggested it was due to Zhou’s progress.

I don’t feel like I’ve regressed. I feel like he has improved. Obviously, last year was his rookie season and when the car was good, those were his first races, explained Bottas.

« I was scoring more points, so he took a better step forward, without a doubt. Therefore, we are closer to each other ».

While last year at the same point in the season, Alfa Romeo was a strong 5th, this year is much more complicated. The team only has 6 points in 5 races and is stagnant in 8th place in the constructors’ standings.

Bottas does not think that there is a specific pattern behind the team’s difficulties and believes that the factors vary from weekend to weekend of the race.

« There is no clear model, it is certain that pure performance is not there. But I don’t know, it’s difficult to say ».