Alfa Romeo heading for Dutch GP with good feeling: 'A lot of work done'

Alfa Romeo is having a rather anonymous season for the time being. No really good results were achieved, although in Hungary two Alfa Romeo cars were suddenly among the top seven. Points were not scored, but the team has become more competitive in the last weeks before the summer break. At least, that is the feeling of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou ahead of the Zandvoort Grand Prix.

Bottas spent the summer break in his native Finland and US Colorado, where he could reset and train. The 33-year-old driver says he cannot wait for the resumption of the Formula 1 season. The first Grand Prix will be at Zandvoort. Bottas was on the podium there in 2021 and the past two editions certainly pleased him.

"The organisers have done a brilliant job and the fans put up a great show, it’s like racing in a big festival," said Bottas, who hopes his formation can score points once again. "The team put in a lot of work before the break, having analysed our performance from our most recent races; although we didn’t score points, we showed some promising signs when it comes to pace, and I am confident we can put up a good fight to get back into the top ten."

Zhou hopes to take momentum to Zandvoort

Teammate Zhou is back from China and driven to get the most out of his Alfa Romeo C43. He speaks words along similar lines to Bottas. "We showed improvements in pace in the last few rounds and we need to keep building on those: we enter the new race weekend, and the second half of the season, ready to give all of our best out to claim important points."

In the constructors' championship, the Italian/Swiss racing stable is in penultimate place with nine points. Zhou knows there is more in it than that. "It will be tough and intense, with the last two European races before heading overseas for the remainder of the season, but I am positive we can achieve it."