JV: Bottas should ‘never, ever get beaten by Zhou’

Jacques Villeneuve believes that Valtteri Bottas should go unbeaten against Zhou Guanyu at Alfa Romeo this season, given his race-winning experience and speed.

Bottas comfortably leads Zhou in the World Championship standings after a sterling start to the season, while Zhou’s P10 finish in Bahrain had been his only point of the year prior to last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Zhou has had reliability issues along the way which have halted his progress, including three retirements in four races, but in Baku and Montreal he outpaced Bottas in qualifying and ran ahead in the races, as he appears to find his feet in Formula 1.

But as well as the 23-year-old showing his own pace, the 1997 World Champion thinks this also reflects badly on a driver of Bottas’ calibre.

“He’s a very nice guy. He’s quick. He’s super-fast. He’s beaten Lewis [Hamilton] on the odd race, but not on a season,” Villeneuve said on the F1 Nation podcast.

Has any birthday wish ever come true? Ours just has! For our 112th anniversary, @ValtteriBottas drove his F1 single-seater around the metropolis of the future: Milan. What a surprise for the city that was the birthplace of #AlfaRomeo! #JoinTheTribe @alfaromeoorlen pic.twitter.com/97gvYfatzE

— Alfa Romeo (@alfa_romeo) June 24, 2022

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“And that’s the difference from a champion like Lewis that has won so many races, that has won on every kind of track and every kind of conditions,