Bottas vs Zhou: All 2024 Sauber Head To Head Stats With Analysis Of Every Race

Thursday, 13 June 2024 at 00:30

Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu race together for the newly branded Kick Sauber in the 2024 Formula One World Championships.

After Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi departed the Alfa Romeo team after the 2021 season, a new line-up of drivers was put together, consisting of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, who have been driving for the third consecutive season together, in what is now a rebranded team, Kick Sauber.

Previously, the Finnish driver spent five seasons in Mercedes after driving for Williams for four seasons. He recorded two second and two third place finishes in the World Drivers' Championships, and move to Sauber was a new page in his book.

On the other hand, for Zhou, driving for Alfa Romeo (Sauber) was his first experience in F1, after previously winning the F3 Asian Championship and finishing third in Formula 2.

In their first two seasons together, Bottas managed to outscore his teammate on both occasions. In 2022, he scored 49 points, compared to Zhou's 6, and while his points total dropped to only 10 in 2023, Zhou's stayed at 6.

Read also

Leclerc vs Sainz: All 2024 Ferrari Head-To-Head Stats

Bottas vs Zhou: All 2024 Sauber H2H Stats:

Category	Valtteri Bottas	Zhou Guanyu
Championship standings	20th (0 points)	19th (0 points)
Grand Prix results head-to-head	5	4
Qualifying head-to-head	8	0
Grand Prix wins	0	0
Pole positions	0	0
Podiums	0	0
Best finish	13th (x2)	11th (x1)
Retirements	1	1
Fastest laps	0	0
Grand Prix points finishes	0	0
Sprint head-to-head	0	2
Sprint race wins	0	0
Sprint shootout head-to-head	1	1
Sprint race podiums	0	0

2024 Bahrain Grand Prix Summary - Bottas vs Zhou:

The first race of the 2024 season was certainly assessed with mixed emotions for Sauber. On the one hand, they qualified 16th and 17th on Friday, and things were looking quite bleak.

But on Saturday, their race pace proved to be quite strong, and that resulted in a very good 11th-place finish for Zhou, who was only one place away from points.

However, Bottas' race was destroyed by a mistake from the mechanics in the box, which resulted in over a 50-second pit stop, causing the Finnish driver to lose any hope about competing for points at the Bahrain Grand Prix. He finished the race 19th.

2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Summary - Bottas vs Zhou:

Zhou crashed his car during the final practice session and couldn't have it repaired in time for the race, which meant he had to start the Saturday race in Jeddah from the last place.

On the other hand, he didn't start too far from Bottas, who didn't make it out of Q1. In the race, Zhou chose a suboptimal pit strategy, which cost him time.

The Finnish driver also lost a lot of time as he got stuck in the DRS train behind Kevin Magnussen, who intentionally slowed down all the drivers behind him. In the end, Bottas finished in P16, and his Chinese teammate finished in P17.

2024 Australian Grand Prix Summary - Bottas vs Zhou:

Zhou and Bottas had a terrible Australian Grand Prix, but it wasn't because of their result, as that was in-line with where they finished during the first two races of the season.

However, their team once again struggled during the pit-stops, producing two incredibly long stops, one for each driver, which saw them lose out on any chance to score points in Melbourne.

As a result, Zhou finished only 15th, one place behind his teammate, who recorded his, at the time, best result of the season, crossing the finish line ini P14.

2024 Japanese Grand Prix Summary - Bottas vs Zhou:

The race at the Suzuka Circuit brought the first retirement of the season for Sauber Kick, as Zhou wasn't able to finish the race because of a gearbox issue, ending the race already after 12 laps.

Bottas, on the other hand, turned a start from the 13th place to a 14th-place finish, but still it was another point-less weekend for the team.

2024 Chinese Grand Prix Summary - Bottas vs Zhou:

Zhou was certainly happy that the first Sprint weekend of the season was held in his home country, and it showed in the Sprint Shootout. He qualified 10th, while his teammate was even better, taking 9th place in SQ3.

However, when it came to the Sprint race, the home driver used that extra bit of motivation to his advantage, finishing 9th in the Spring, which, unfortunately for him and thousands of fans in Shanghai, wasn't enough to earn that one point rewarded for P8. Bottas, on the other hand, finished the Sprint in P12.

But Sauber once again showed that they were strong at the Shanghai International Circuit in the qualifying for the Grand Prix. Although Zhou failed to replicate the early success, failing to get out of Q1 and placing 16th, Bottas got into Q3 and put his Sauber Kick in 10th place.

But the race ended terribly for the Finnish driver, who had hopes of finishing in the points, as on Lap 20, his engine stopped working and he was forced to retire the car. Zhou, on the other hand, wasn't able to find more pace in his car in front of the home crowd, finishing 14th.

2024 Miami Grand Prix Summary - Bottas vs Zhou:

Zhou outqualified his Bottas for the first time in the 2024 season during the Sprint shootout at Miami International Autodrome. Unfortunately, Sauber lacked too much speed compared to their rivals, so he could only finish in P11, while Bottas finished in P14.

Sauber drivers knew they were at a disadvantage so they both went for different strategies in the race. Bottas paid for the bad timing of the safety car and finished in P16.

The safety car suited Zhou better, and he pitted for the soft compound tires. He had to do around 30 laps on them, which he managed, but he didn't have the pace on the straight to overtake Alex Albon, so he finished in P14.

2024 Emilia Romagna Prix Summary - Bottas vs Zhou:

During the seventh round of the season at Imola, Bottas outqualified Zhou by two-tenths of a second. However, it didn't matter much as they started from P16 and P17 respectively.

The Finnish driver tried an alternative strategy with an earlier pit stop, but it didn't work out. He struggled too much in the end and lost too many positions. Ultimately, Zhou finished in P15 and Bottas in P18.

2024 Monaco Grand Prix Summary - Bottas vs Zhou:

Circuit de Monaco clearly didn't suit Sauber cars. Although Bottas put in a half-a-second faster lap than Zhou, he was still half a second slower than Perez in P18.

Both Sauber drivers moved up two positions on the grid before the start of the race due to the disqualification of the Haas cars from the qualifying session.

They also gained two more positions on the opening lap as both Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, who started ahead of them, crashed their cars.

Zhou then didn't make much progress and finished in P16, while Bottas overtook Logan Sargeant and gained one more position, due to Lance Stroll's mistake, to finish in P13.

After the Monaco Grand Prix, Sauber remained the only team on the grid that haven't scored a single point so far in the 2024 season.

2024 Canadian Grand Prix Summary - Bottas vs Zhou:

The Canadian Grand Prix was a very tough one for the Zhou Guanyu. In all three practice sessions combined, he got 25 laps of running, not to mention 21 out of that wasn't even in dry conditions.

The problem was that he crashed his Sauber twice, the first time in FP1 and the second time in FP3. He was then on the back foot going into qualifying and couldn't match the times set by Bottas.

Zhou qualified last with a lap time almost a second slower than that set by his teammate, who qualified in P17. Nevertheless, both Sauber drivers started the race from the pit lane in the end. Bottas managed to climb his way into the final P13, and Zhou crossed the finish line in P15.

Albon vs Sargeant: All 2024 Williams Head To Head Stats With Analysis Of Every Race

Marko Brings Hamilton Into Conversation About Perez's Penalty From Canadian Grand Prix