Alfa Romeo Gets Fined Surprising Amount Of Money After Zhou Guanyu Breaks Rules

Alfa Romeo F1 team received a fine following Zhou Guanyu's rule infringement by speeding in the pitlane during qualification for the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix.

Zhou Guanyu has been investigated for speeding in the pitlane during qualification on Saturday at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

The Chinese driver apparently crossed the prescribed speed limit in the pitlane (80 km/h or 49.711 mph) by 4.1 km/h (2.5 mph). His team has been consequently fined €500.

It is unusual to see a driver speeding in the pitlane during a qualifying session because drivers have a button for something like cruise control in the pit lane, which ensures they drive the speed limit.

On the other hand, as the small fine suggests, this wasn't a serious infringement as the Alfa Romeo driver didn't gain valuable time like he would in the race.

Fortunately for Zhou, he was not awarded a grid penalty. Both he and his teammate Valtteri Bottas achieved amazing results for Alfa Romeo in Saturday's Qualification.

Bottas placed P9 and Zhou P10. The promising qualifying session, however, did not turn into a great race result. Zhou finished in 14th place and Bottas in 15th.

Scoring zero points, the Alfa Romeo team got overtaken in the Championship by the AlphaTauri team, which jumped two positions up from the last place in the Constructors' Championship.

Daniel Ricciardo secured six valuable points for his team with an amazing performance when he finished in P7. Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri currently both have 16 points in the Championship.

With three race weekends remaining until the end of the season. Alfa Romeo drivers have to extract the best they can out of the car.

Zhou and Bottas can take the eighth position in the Championship back into the hands of Alfa Romeo this week during Sprint weekend at the famous Interlagos Circuit in Sao Paulo.