Alfa Romeo will head into the 2024 season with an unchanged line-up, because the staff confirmed that present drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, will proceed their relationship with the Hinwil squad for a 3rd yr working.
Ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, Alfa Romeo put all items of the puzzle in place as they confirmed that they are going to race with an unchanged driver line-up in the forthcoming season.
Bottas, a ten-time race winner in Formula One, will enter the third chapter of the multi-year deal he struck with the staff from 2022 onwards. The staff will proceed to companion the game’s first Chinese driver Guanyu, who will race on house soil for the primary time in F1, with the Chinese Grand Prix returning to the calendar subsequent yr.
Commenting on the announcement, Alfa Romeo Team Representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi added: “The choice to proceed our journey with our driver line-up unchanged is testomony to the funding we’ve got made in our challenge. Nothing in Formula One adjustments in a single day, and we’ve got taken a acutely aware choice to deal with stability and to hold constructing our staff up collectively as we embark on an essential interval of transition.
“Valtteri and Zhou are drivers of recognized expertise and ability and so they work rather well collectively: they’re well-matched and may push one another. Valtteri has taken an actual chief’s function throughout the staff, pushing us all to give our greatest; Zhou has made spectacular steps ahead in the final two years and we count on him to proceed on this trajectory in 2024. Now the baton is again to us – we’ve got to give each drivers an excellent automotive and put them in the most effective circumstances to carry out.
“Finally, I’m blissful that Théo will stay with the staff for 2024 as considered one of our reserve drivers: he has achieved an unimaginable job this yr, not simply in F2, the place we’ll all assist him as he fights for the title in Abu Dhabi, but additionally behind the scenes, working with the staff in Hinwil.”
One of our personal. ♥️
A particular message for you, from @ZhouGuanyu24. #F1 pic.twitter.com/Gwgv1lAW7t
— Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake (@alfaromeostake) September 14, 2023
Ten-time F1 race winner Valtteri Bottas stated: “I’ve a sense we’ve got an thrilling journey forward of us, so I’m blissful and grateful to have the ability to look ahead to 2024 understanding how the staff is shaping up. There is an effective environment inside our squad, I get alongside with Zhou and we each push one another onerous to enhance.
“There is a powerful quantity of labor happening behind the scenes, in Hinwil and past, and now that the line-up is set for subsequent yr, we will focus totally on enhancing, beginning this weekend in Singapore already. Every step ahead we make is a step ahead for this yr and subsequent, so we’re motivated to give the whole lot we’ve got each time we’re trackside or on the manufacturing facility.”
Zhou Guanyu added: “Signing once more with the staff is at all times an incredible feeling, particularly once we understand how issues are shaping up. I’m proud to be a part of Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake and grateful for his or her belief: I’ve been working extraordinarily onerous since day one and there’s an unimaginable degree of motivation to hold doing so every single day ahead.
“My relationship with Valtteri is absolutely good, and we’re working carefully collectively and with the staff to push everybody ahead. I’m additionally very excited in regards to the alternative to lastly race with my staff in China, in entrance of my house crowd. It might be an incredible second and I’m proud to have the ability to share it with all those that have supported me.”
Furthermore, the Swiss-Italian staff has additionally confirmed the extension of its relationship with 2023 FIA F2 championship chief Théo Pourchaire as considered one of its reserve drivers. The 20-year-old Frenchman has juggled a busy schedule of racing alongside his key work in the simulator in Hinwil.
Théo Pourchaire commented: “Over the years, the staff has develop into a household to me and, due to this fact, I’m actually blissful and grateful to proceed my journey with Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake and the Sauber Academy.
“The assist I’ve obtained from everybody in the staff has been excellent, and I’m proud to have the ability to contribute to the expansion of the entire operation. I’ve rather a lot in me I can provide to this particular group of individuals and I’m trying ahead to the longer term. Of course, a good way to say thanks could be to end the job in F2 in Abu Dhabi – I’ll give the whole lot to deliver it house for the staff.”
