"Huge relief from all the pressures" - Guanyu Zhou upbeat after Bahrain GP points finish

Alfa Romeo's 2022 rookie driver Guanyu Zhou made quite the impression at the Bahrain Grand Prix, having scored his first race point in his debut Grand Prix with a tenth-place finish. Zhou revealed that this result was a big point of relief for him, given that rookies feel the added pressure of proving their worth and talent within their first season of this highly competitive sport.

In a press conference ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the Alfa Romeo driver shared his experiences from his debut race last weekend, saying:

“Very satisfied with the results because there’s a huge relief from the pressures I was having since last year and I mentioned it before in a few interviews but yeah with the debut on the first weekend I was able to have no mistakes inside the cockpit which was very good and then that was able to give me the confidence to try to improve session by session. And of course, there’s plenty of stuff for me to be still looking at and to be improved from myself but nevertheless, I think, especially for the race it was a very good comeback after a difficult start of the opening lap.”

Expressing his appreciation towards the team and detailing the boost in confidence and momentum, he went on to say:

“Yeah I think the team did a very good job to, you know, make a big step of improvement in the car compared to where we were the year before, so that has really given us the boost to keep working. It’s still a long season to go but it was a very good starting point.”

Guanyu Zhou is the only rookie on the grid this year and has been outscored and out-qualified by his team-mate Valtteri Bottas so far.

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Guanyu Zhou explains his poor start at Bahrain Grand Prix

The Chinese driver had a great end to his first F1 Grand Prix in Bahrain, however, it did not come with the easiest start. After qualifying in fifteenth, while his team-mate was all the way up in sixth, Zhou had a poor start on the opening lap.

As reported by f1.com, the 22-year-old described his struggles in Turn 1, saying:

“I had a problem in Turn 1 – I went into anti-stall, had to go into neutral, and restart everything. That was a bit strange, and then I knew my chance to get into the points was very low so I was like, ‘fully attack’, and tried to only put my eyes forward.”

After an impressive start to the season, Guanyu Zhou will be looking to maintain his momentum at the upcoming Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend.