Get to know the Alfa Romeo F1 team — whose racing dates back more than 100 years — including drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
It’s not easy competing in the Formula 1 World Championship. Just ask Alfa Romeo, the iconic Italian automaker whose auto racing resume stretches not only back before the first-ever F1 season in 1950, but even before the start of World War I. Thanks in part to that handy head start, Alfa Romeo’s Giuseppe Farina ended up winning that year’s Drivers’ Championship, and the outfit repeated the feat again in 1951 with Juan Manuel Fangio.
More than six decades later, they haven’t won such a crown since, and are still awaiting their first Constructors’ Championship.
These days, longtime Williams and Mercedes stalwart Valtteri Bottas is the face of the team, having joined the team for 2022 season along with 22-year-old Chinese rookie Zhou Guanyu, who replaced the retiring Kimi Räikkönen, a former world champion as a member of Scuderia Ferrari.
Let’s get to know the Alfa Romeo F1 team.
Get on our list for weekly sports business, industry trends, interviews, and more.
History of Alfa Romeo in Formula 1
Founded: 1911
Previously known as: Alfa Corse, Autodelta
Headquarters: Hinwil, Zürich, Switzerland
Owner: Sauber Group
Key sponsors: PKN ORLEN, Acer, Ferrari Trento, Hyland, Mitsubishi Electric, Pirelli, Puma, Singha, Socios
After back-to-back drivers’ titles in the first two years of F1 competition, Alfa Romeo didn’t compete as a constructor again until 1979, the first of seven consecutive campaigns in the world championship, the first coming under the Autodelta banner before reverting back to Alfa Romeo. Zero points in the 1985 standings led to another exeunt that wouldn’t be broken until 2019.
Alfa Romeo Racing officially returned after the Sauber Group, which has had a presence in some form in the sport since 1993, changed its name officially after signing a multi-year technical and commercial partnership with Alfa Romeo in 2018. Since their big return to F1, Alfa Romeo has exclusively raced Ferrari engines.
That first full season began with Räikkönen replacing the departing Charles Leclerc and joining Antonio Giovinazzi, with that duo finishing No. 8 in the Constructors’ standings with 57 points before landing eighth again with the same drivers in 2020, only collecting eight points. Räikkönen and Giovinazzi returned in 2021 only to slip to ninth in the Constructors’ race on 13 points.
2022 Alfa Romeo F1 Drivers
Valtteri Bottas
- No. 77 car
- Two No. 2 finishes in Drivers’ Championship; helped Mercedes win five Constructors’ Championships;
- Ranks No. 9 all-time with 67 podium finishes
The mild-mannered Bottas is one of the most consistent performers of this era of Formula 1 — or any era, to be honest. Dating back to 2014, he’s finished outside of the top five of the Drivers’ Championship standings just once, peaking at No. 3 in both 2017 and ’21.
Zhou Guanyu
- No. 24 car
- No. 3 finish in 2021 Formula 2 championship standings
- Finished in the points in first-ever F1 start (2022 Bahrain Grand Prix)
He was born in Shanghai, but Zhou Guanyu relocated to the north of England as a tweener to kick-start a career on the karting circuit that saw him eventually become teammates with present-day McLaren wheelman Lando Norris. He still awaits his first podium, but still shy of his 23rd birthday, he is barely a year older than this season’s single youngest F1 driver, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.
Alfa Romeo’s F1 Championships & Milestones
Numbers reflect results through the 2022 Miami Grand Prix.
Constructors’ Championships: 0
Drivers’ Championships: 2 (1950, ’51)
All-time Formula 1 wins: 10
F1 podiums: 26
F1 poles: 12
F1 fastest laps: 14
Get on our list for weekly sports business, industry trends, interviews, and more.
