Zhou Guanyu was one of the stand-out drives from Bahrain, which will be critical to replicate ahead of contract talks this year.
Perhaps it is premature to discuss Zhou Guanyu’s contract at this stage of 2024. After all, there are still twenty-three rounds of the F1 season to complete. With that said, every performance is critical in such a highly competitive field.
Both Sauber drivers are on expiring deals, increasing the importance of their efforts in the upcoming months.
Last year, the Swiss outfit produced a rather uninspiring machine, giving Zhou and Bottas very limited chances to score points.
This subsequently impacted their chances of producing noteworthy performances.
Whilst this, in theory, should not impact how teams perceive drivers – a faster car is always beneficial.
For this reason, Zhou deserves tremendous praise for making waves with his P11 finish at this year’s Bahrain GP.
Zhou delivers a near-perfect race
The 24-year-old started from 17th place last Saturday, having qualified just 0.001 behind his teammate.
However, the Chinese driver quickly put himself in contention for points.
After a strong start and producing very competitive laps on the hard tyres, Zhou was in a battle with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll for P10.
In most previous F1 seasons, a DNF from the front-runners would have pushed Zhou into the points.
Unfortunately, for this year’s midfield pack, reliability is extremely strong across the grid.
This means that (provided the top 5 teams execute clean races) the top 10 will be very difficult to penetrate.
Despite this, Zhuo’s performance in Bahrain is not inconsequential.
With Sauber linked to the likes of Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg, there is no shortage of pressure for Stake F1 Team’s driver line-up.
The early speed shown by junior driver Zane Maloney in Formula 2 is yet another factor to consider.
Amidst such strong competition, the bar must be raised by the team’s existing duo.
Whilst a larger sample size is necessary, Zhou appears to be responding in the best possible way to the hyper-competitive F1 market.
Team Representative Alunni Bravi was full of praise for his “strong drive” in Sakhir.
This will serve as a good platform to build upon in the upcoming rounds.
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