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Second seat Alfa Romeo: 'They don't want to give him a long-term contract'

Second seat Alfa Romeo: 'They don't want to give him a long-term contract'

14-09-2021 18:51 Last update: 20:00
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GPblog.com

Following the announcement of Valtteri Bottas at Alfa Romeo, it is only a matter of time before the second seat at the team is also announced. Who will sit next to the Finn?

For weeks now there have been rumours about who will be driving for Alfa Romeo from 2022 onwards. Antonio Giovinazzi still drives for the team but it is far from certain that the Italian will keep his seat next year.

Nyck de Vries has been named as Giovinazzi's successor, but recently strong rumours have been heard about Formula 2 driver Guanyu Zhou. Earlier it was rumoured that the F2 driver was the favourite to win the second seat.

Battle in Formula 2

In his new video for Auto, Motor und Sport Michael Schmidt talks about what he has heard. ""Guanyu Zhou has the best chances [Alfa Romeo], but we also hear that he wants a long-term contract, which Vasseur does not want to give him." The Alfa Romeo team boss would not want to do this because of Théo Pourchaire, the team's junior driver. AMuS already reported rumours that it would be too early for the Frenchman to move to Formula 1.

However, when Pourchaire is ready, Vasseur wants to make sure he can get into F1 right away. A long-term contract for Zhou could work against this. "Vasseur told me that he wants to see the F2 races in Monza and Sochi and then make a decision, so that could already imply that it will be a junior driver",  said Schmidt. It is therefore expected that we will find out more about Alfa Romeo's decision after Sochi.