Zhou Guanyu admits he is pleased with how his rookie season has gone so far but stated he would expect even better in the second half.Zhou is the only rookie on the Formula 1 grid in 2022, picking up points on his debut in Bahrain and again in Canada during his first 13 races.The Chinese driver has also suffered from poor reliability with four DNFs, the most of any driver, while Alfa Romeo teammate Valtteri Bottas has secured 46 points.Stay up to speed on the latest Formula 1 news by subscribing to our FREE newsletter, 'The Undercut'Decreasing the gapDespite the gulf between the two, Zhou is excited for the second half of the season, and has been chipping away at the pace deficit to Bottas - a 10-time Grand Prix winner."I've been non-stop flat-out, especially from the end of last year, Christmas until now, so it has been tough, but quite enjoyable as well," he explained to media after the Hungarian Grand Prix."I have to say, I learned a lot so far this season. [I have] to improve a lot but there's still a long way to go and a lot more to come.
It feels good to have a little bit of a break and hopefully come back even stronger. It's been up and downs, obviously, having a lot [of] unfinished races [due] to different issues."But I'm quite happy that this week kind of switched around to [the] point [where] I feel like we are back to where we were around Silverstone."We were missing a little bit of pace over [the] last few weekends, so [I am] quite happy with a good Saturday [in Hungary] and felt today this pace was there, but strategy [made us] go backwards a little bit."To get The Undercut delivered to your inbox, you must be logged in to your free News24 profile.Once you're registered, go to 'My Newsletters' under your