£30k-a-week F1 driver says he’s relieved his teammate hasn’t ‘absolutely’ destroyed him this season

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The relationship between two drivers in the same team is an important but extremely difficult thing to manage.

From a constructor’s point of view, they need both of their drivers to work in perfect harmony to secure the best result possible in each race.

However, from an individual standpoint, both drivers know that they need to be ruthless on the track and for some racers, they know that every session counts when it comes to potentially securing their future.

Sauber won’t want to reflect on the first half of the 2024 season after enduring a pointless start to the campaign.

Zhou Guanyu came within a position of scoring a point at the season’s opener in Bahrain but hasn’t reached that level again since.

His teammate Valtteri Bottas currently sits bottom of the Drivers’ Championship which is in stark contrast to his campaigns with Mercedes where he achieved 10 race victories.

Zhou was speaking to Motorsport Week about his relationship with his more experienced teammate.

The £30,000-a-week driver admitted that he works very closely with the Finnish star and explained that he was very glad that Bottas hasn’t ‘absolutely’ destroyed him during their time together.

READ MORE: Sauber driver Zhou Guanyu’s life outside F1 from height to net worth

Zhou Guanyu relieved that Sauber teammate Valtteri Bottas hasn’t destroyed him

Talking about his Sauber teammate, Zhou said: “Obviously me and Valtteri have a really great relationship together in terms of respecting each other, trusting each other, sacrificing sometimes our races for the other just because we are not always in the certain standard we can fight both cars in the points.

“So, we always let each other pass and we know if he couldn’t make the position, he will give my position back. So, it’s very fair, like what we play in the team. And that comes with a lot of trust.

READ MORE: Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas’ life outside F1 from girlfriend to wine and gin

“So, he’s been really supportive and also being very humble, helping me as a rookie since my first year and that’s great to have because you don’t want to be a rookie that have an experienced driver wanting to absolutely destroy you.

“I think sometimes what you do with a team is you try to hide from things because you want to destroy them at the same time but that’s not the case in Sauber.”

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Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas fighting for their Formula 1 future

While Zhou and Bottas have worked well together at Sauber, neither driver appears to have done enough to earn a new contract with the team ahead of the takeover of Audi in 2026.

Nico Hulkenberg has already been signed from Haas which looks like a masterstroke given his current form.

Valtteri Bottas appears to be the favourite to sign for Williams alongside Alex Albon in 2025.

It would be a return for the Finn to the team that gave him his first chance in Formula 1.

For Zhou, the chances of staying on the grid look bleaker.

Zhou has admitted he has a very good relationship with Alpine who still have an available seat for next year following his time in Renault’s academy.

However, there have been suggestions that Sauber might have already dropped Zhou if they had a young talent on a similar level to Kimi Antonelli, which doesn’t spark much confidence in current reserve driver and F2 champion Theo Pourchaire.

Formula E’s chief has courted Zhou recently and that might be an option he needs to explore more closely soon.

However, he and Bottas know that the next dozen races will need their full focus to try and lift Sauber off the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship and attract some interest from the few teams with seats still available for 2025.