Alfa Romeo expected to keep Zhou for 2023

Fred Vasseur is pleased with Zhou Guanyu's performances.

Zhou Guanyu will likely continue with Alfa Romeo in the 2023 season after a respectable rookie season that has pleased team principal Fred Vasseur. 

The F2 graduate faced extraordinary criticism when it was announced that he would join Alfa Romeo at the end of last year, but this outrage has largely been silenced. 

Since then, the 23-year-old has shown reasonable progress, avoiding the excessive errors made by rookies over the last two years and demonstrating good pace in a highly competitive midfield. 

It would be a stretch to suggest the Chinese driver is the finished article, but the youngster has driven well amongst the C42's persistent reliability issues. 

As Fred Vasseur told autosport.com, Zhou also adds tremendous value to the team commercially, just another reason he is on track for a contract extension:

"So far, he did q2 at the first race and scored a point in Bahrain. Then he was able to improve step by step, even though we had issues with reliability.

"We didn't tell him, but I am more then pleased he scored points in Montreal, because he deserved it. So far, he's doing a perfect job. 

"He's doing a perfect job in the car but also outside of it because he is a very good team player, a very good teammate. He's always bringing extra motivation to the guys. He has a positive attitude."

Vasseur also mentioned the importance of Alfa Romeo having a second driver capable of scoring points, given the increasingly competitive nature of the midfield:

"If you want to fight with Alpine or McLaren, we need to score points with two cars. This is mandatory.

For us, it's also important to have the second car to play with the strategy. Again, I think on every single point, he's there. 

"Even in terms of car development, he's now at the level that he can bring his own stone to the system, to have his own contribution."

Given Theo Pourchaire's relatively underwhelming championship so far in Formula 2, Zhou can go into the summer break in a solid position to secure his F1 future.