Chinese fans cheered for Zhou Guanyu, who rewrote the history of Chinese motorsport, and the Chinese driver has become the focus of the entire F1 world after the first leg of the season.
But I believe that whether it is Zhou Guanyu himself, or Alfa Romeo Team, after celebrating the results of the Bahrain Station, they will calm down and look at Zhou Guanyu's second F1 leg of the season in Saudi Arabia this weekend, as well as the subsequent races.
Because behind Zhou Guanyu's top ten points, there are indeed many factors that are beneficial to his debut, and these factors may not be able to continue to play a role in the subsequent stages.
The first is bahrain as the venue for Zhou Guanyu's first match of F1, which gives him a geographical advantage.
Almost a year ago, Zhou Guanyu won his first F2 regular championship in Bahrain, and driving a new Alfa Romeo car, Zhou Guanyu also participated in the test in Bahrain before this season. For the Bahrain circuit, Zhou Guanyu can be said to be the most familiar of all the races throughout the year, and it also makes Zhou Guanyu's debut difficulty a lot less.
The tracks that are not so familiar in the back, or the tracks that have only driven F2 cars but not F1 cars, are the real test for Zhou Guanyu, and it will be extremely difficult in the first season.
The good performance of Alfa Romeo's car also helped Zhou Guanyu. Judging from the fact that his teammate Bottas finished sixth in qualifying, regular or sixth, the new car is not weak in the face of this year's major changes in the rules. It seems that it is currently second only to Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes, on par with Renault, Haas and Alfatoli, far ahead of the other three teams.
That is to say, as long as Zhou Guanyu plays normally, it is expected to stabilize in a position in the top ten of the game. If the higher teams and drivers make mistakes, or withdraw from the race, there is still hope of breaking into the top ten again.
Of course, after all, the new season has just begun, and as the race progresses, each team will make a step of improvement in the performance of the car and better adapt to the new rules. How the competitiveness of the Alfa Romeo team will change throughout the season is unknown.
After all, Zhou Guanyu is only a "first-year student" in the F1 arena, just like when Bahrain started, he suddenly dropped 4 positions and once ranked at the bottom.
A tougher test awaits the Chinese driver, and it's not as easy to get points as it is in the first stop. For Zhou Guanyu, it is still necessary to hold the mentality of "paying tuition" to compare with the competition of each stop, and the most important thing is to be able to complete each stop smoothly.