Alfa Romeo Boss Justifies Why This F2 Star Didn’t Get a Seat Beside Valtteri Bottas for 2022 F1 Season

Guanyu Zhou will be making his move from F2 to the premier class with Alfa Romeo in 2022. Additionally, F2 champion Oscar Piastri is now making his way to Alpine as a reserve driver. Thus, F2 has now become an important talent pool for F1, and a lot of names are often thrown around. Theo Pourchaire was one such name; Pourchaire’ was in the mix for Alfa Romeo’s seat beside Valtteri Bottas.

Team boss Fred Vasseur believes the young driver will have to wait. “He won in Monaco; but we only have six days of testing before the start of the new season and this means that it would have been, from my point of view, too risky. It was too much work to take such a step now. It is much better to be focused on the championship in F2. Then we will see the future. “

Thus, it was not for lack of talent on the driver’s behalf, who had a splendid 2021 campaign. “He had a fantastic [debut] F2 season, but we must also bear in mind that 18 months ago he was in F4 [and] that the step between F4 and F3 was huge. “

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Theo has been a growing name in the world of motorsport, but will find himself behind the F1 car only for practice sessions. Further, being an 18-year driver, Vasseur chose not to place his bets on the driver at least for now.

Valtteri Bottas ready to take on the Alfa Romeo challenge

While Vasseur has his fears about Pourchaire, he retains massive faith in Valtteri Bottas. As the Finn brings in experience from Williams and Mercedes, the boss hopes to see him, coach Zhou, in his rookie season.

Promising Bottas his place in the spotlight, Vasseur said, “he will be central to our project. It will be a pillar of the development of the team. It is probably not exactly like this at Mercedes, because he was always a bit in the shadow of Lewis.”

Instead, Bottas has a responsibility on his shoulders in leading the team. “He will have to bring his own experience and to be a key factor in the development of the company and the team. This, for sure, will give him more responsibility.”

Thus, the team is excited to work with their new frontman and Bottas is excited to take the rings. Will the move from the top team of the grid to the 9th best motivate Bottas to push his Alfa Romeo to the limit?

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