Zhou Guanyu: Alfa Romeo can't keep up with other teams' upgrades

Zhou Guanyu of Alfa Romeo has acknowledged that the Swiss team is facing difficulties in keeping up with the development pace of Formula 1's midfield.

While awaiting the next round of upgrades at Silverstone, the team has found itself slipping backward in recent weeks, in contrast to the intense battle within the midfield where teams are rapidly introducing new parts to gain positions.

During the Austrian Grand Prix qualifying, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou secured 14th and 17th positions respectively.

Bottas' race was compromised by front wing damage, while Zhou also struggled to maintain a competitive pace and finished 12th, a lap behind the leaders. Only AlphaTauri and Haas had worse performances.

Unfortunately, Alfa Romeo has dropped to eighth in the standings, with Haas' Nico Hulkenberg earning points in the sprint race. The team now holds a narrow two-point advantage over Williams.

When questioned about concerns regarding the team's ability to introduce updates promptly amidst the ongoing development battle in 2023, Zhou admitted that Alfa Romeo is finding it challenging to keep pace with certain rival teams.

"Yeah, it's always going to be the case," Zhou told Motorsport.com.

"Compared to a lot of the bigger teams they obviously can bring multiple upgrades if one doesn't work and for us, we have to kind of stick to what we've got, before we planned the season.

"Of course, we're trying our hardest but it's not easy, and let's say it's been a few more difficult weekends for the team.

"Everyone is obviously bringing upgrades and we're talking about not even tenths or one hundredths, we're talking about thousandths.

"I missed Q2 two times over like 0.006s in total over two laps."