In 2022, Valtteri Bottas arrived on the Alfa Romeo-branded Sauber staff trying to forge a brand new profession path in Method 1 after being dropped by front-runners Mercedes.
In the meantime Zhou Guanyu arrived in Method 1 looking for to determine himself as a grand prix driver. However three years on each discover themselves with out race drives for subsequent season.
Arguably, each drivers did not exceed expectations of how they might carry out so as to persuade both their present staff to maintain them or one other to rent them.
Bottas, a 10-times grand prix winner, got here to Alfa Romeo having simply helped Mercedes win the constructors’ championship for the eighth 12 months in a row. The early indicators have been promising: He began his first race for his new staff on the third row alongside former staff mate Lewis Hamilton.
The 49 factors Bottas scored in 2022 was significantly greater than his predecessors managed. However the staff’s type has dipped since then.
Zhou, in the meantime, scored the identical variety of factors in his first two seasons: six. Given how a lot much less aggressive the staff was in 2023, this mirrored some progress on Zhou’s half. Throughout that point his share of the staff’s factors rose from round a tenth to greater than a 3rd.
That pattern continued in 2024 when Zhou was the staff’s solely points-scorer, however made only a single look within the high 10, selecting up 4 factors. These got here on one of many staff’s best weekends of the 12 months, in Qatar, when Bottas was delayed by a collision with Liam Lawson.
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However although Zhou’s enchancment was discernible, he by no means constantly overcame his extra skilled staff mate, and his ejection from the grid after three years doesn’t appear like an injustice. He completed behind Bottas most of the time this 12 months. The qualifying battle was extra one-sided than ever at 19-4, although which will partly mirror the times on which solely Bottas had Sauber’s newest upgrades.
It’s not troublesome to see why Sauber selected to not retain Zhou, and the identical is true for Bottas. Over three years, he completed forward of Zhou two instances to at least one. Had the staff’s efficiency not steadily declined over that interval, the rookie’s factors haul would have regarded extra spectacular, although even then it wouldn’t have made an apparent case for Zhou deserving a fourth season.
Bottas vs Zhou, 2022-24
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Zhou’s efficiency towards Bottas in 2024
Qualifying gaps between Bottas and Zhou in 2024
Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Unfavorable worth: Guanyu was sooner; Constructive worth: Bottas was sooner
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