China's first F1 racer Zhou Guanyu finished 18th with six points in his rookie season with Alfa Romeo.

The 23-year-old gained one point in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix (GP), four points in the Canadian GP and another one point in the Italian race.

As the only F1 rookie this season, Zhou was the winner of the Autosport's Rookie of the Year Award, a prize given to the top voted racer by Autosport readers as announced on December 4. Other candidates included Toyota's World Endurance champion Ryo Hirakawa of Japan, IndyCar podium finisher Christian Lundgaard of Denmark and F2 race winner Logan Sargeant of the United States.

7/10

"If the full mark is 10 points, I would give myself a seven," Zhou said in a media briefing on December 14 in Shanghai.

For the missing three points, Zhou explained, "One point was for my improvement in future. The other two missing points are due to my final ranking of the year. There were some retirements and engine failures of the season, which was a pity."

"I think we could improve to a higher level based on the speed of our performance throughout the season," he added.

After the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi, Zhou said he was satisfied with Alfa Romeo's sixth position in the 2022 constructors' standings.

"We gave everything in that race. We achieved the target, which was to finish P6. I had to really sacrifice my strategy to hold Sebastian and Lance up, which we did a good job," said Zhou, reported formula1.com.

"Obviously, on paper, it's not the best we hoped for with our unreliability, but I'm sure next year we will get it all fixed and we can have a much better season," added Zhou. 

"I've really enjoyed my first season, with all the fans supporting me, the team, and my team mate Valtteri – it's been amazing," noted Zhou, who will continue racing alongside Valtteri Bottas for a second season with the team in 2023.

The F1 2022 season featured a total of 22 races, during which Zhou's best result was finishing eighth at the Canadian GP but he did not finish (DNF) races for five times.

Race 1: Zhou finished 10th at the Bahrain GP.

"I am so happy," said Zhou after the race.

"My biggest dream was to race in F1, then to score points and tonight we did both: being on the grid before the race, with the other 19 drivers, was crazy enough, but the race itself was so intense," he added.

Race 2: Zhou finished 11th at the Saudi Arabian GP.

"I want to think this was a good experience in terms of getting more confidence with street circuits in F1. It was useful, but overall, the race was definitely far from ideal: we had the anti-stall kicking in at Turn One," he said after the race.

Race 3: Zhou remained 11th at the Australian GP.

"I am proud of my race, but obviously I am a bit upset at missing out on the points for such a close margin. Our pace was good, but we lost a few positions with the safety car and that made our life a lot harder," Zhou said after the race.

Race 4: Zhou finished 15th at the Emilia Romagna GP.

"Not the result I wanted today, but there are still a lot of positives from me to take out of this weekend: not just the performance I showed over the three days, but also how I got up to speed quickly in my first Sprint race," he said, adding that "it was always going to be hard to make it into the top ten from the pit lane."

Race 5: Zhou suffered his first F1 DNF at the Miami GP.

"It's a shame to be forced to retire when we were making good inroads," Zhou said. "It's frustrating, of course, but it's part of racing."

Race 6: Zhou's bad luck continued as he suffered another DNF at the Spanish GP.

"It's disappointing to finish the race ahead of time for the second weekend in a row, especially when we were potentially on the way to a good result," Zhou said.

Race 7: Zhou finished 16th at the Monaco GP.

"It was a challenging race, but I think we achieved the maximum we could get. Part of the race was just about surviving, defending hard in the wet – especially when we had to keep going on the wet tires on a drying track to make our strategy work," Zhou said after the race.

Race 8: Zhou suffered a DNF at the Azerbaijan GP.

"It's frustrating not to finish today, but I want to focus on the positives of my performance. Until the issue, my race had gone really well: I didn't do any mistake, I was competitive and I was running in the points," Zhou said after the race.

Race 9: Zhou Guanyu finished 8th, his highest ranking of the season, at the Canadian GP.

"I am really happy with P8 as it's my best finish in F1 so far. Today we did everything correctly on track and with the strategy," Zhou said.

Race 10: Zhou suffered a severe car wreck and DNF at the British GP.

"It was a big crash and I'm glad I'm ok. The marshals and the medical team at the track were fantastic with their quick response, and I also owe my thanks to the FIA and F1 for all the work they have done, and they keep doing, to improve the safety of our cars: the Halo saved me today," Zhou said after the accident.

"It goes to show that every step we take in improving our cars has real, valuable results," he added. 

Race 11: Zhou finished 14th at the Austrian GP.

"I feel we had a lot more potential in our car this weekend, so I am not happy with this result," Zhou said.

"I had some fun battles and enjoyed the close racing we had, but I wanted more from this weekend," he added.

Race 12: Zhou finished 16th but received a five-second time penalty for causing a collision at the French GP.

"About 10-15 laps to the end I was suffering with a power unit issue; I tried to do some switching, but eventually that put an end to my race," Zhou said.

"Apart from that, the race just never went our way, we were struggling all the way through. Regarding the contact with Mick, I was defending my inside in Turn 11, he was trying to go for the outside but then it got to one point where the corner just became too small for me. I think it’s difficult to judge for both of us, as that kind of compromised my race. Unfortunately, that happens in racing, we just have to move forward," he explained the cause of a collision.

Race 13: Zhou finished 13th at the Hungarian GP.

"Conditions today weren't a threat per se, they were a bit mixed, especially a little more slippery on the last few laps, but overall okay," Zhou said after the race.

"I think our plan today didn't really pay off, we struggled on lap one and on the first few laps losing ground to other cars, and as going for one stop didn't work out, we had to do an extra one which put me on the back of the field. It was quite frustrating, as it compromised my chances."

Race 14: Zhou finished 14th at the Belgian GP.

"Our pace was quite alright today, and despite starting from the back due to the penalty, the race has even been quite exciting, with lots of action going on," Zhou said after the race.

"In the last four or five laps, I had no tires left, so it was a bit difficult to keep up," he added.

Race 15: Zhou finished 16th at the Dutch GP.

"It's been quite a tough race today, particularly towards the end as we got slowed down a lot by all the blue flags. The late safety car also did not play in our favor, as there wasn't much time left and we put on used softs which didn't make it easy to charge up," Zhou said after the race.

Race 16: Zhou finished 10th and gained one point at the Italian GP.

"Being back in the points today is an amazing feeling, a great result both for the team and for Alfa Romeo. We knew we had a chance today; our pace was good and it allowed us to be in the fight with the other teams," Zhou said after the race.

Race 17: Zhou suffered a DNF at the Singapore GP.

"It's disappointing to finish a race with such a crash, there was not much I could do," Zhou said after the race. "It was not what we wanted, and it's especially annoying as I think we had a decent pace."

Race 18: Zhou finished 16th at the Japanese GP.

"I have positives to take from the weekend, even though we didn't score. It was nice to see that we can still be so close and have good pace; furthermore, it being my first time in Suzuka, I learned a lot over the weekend. Overall, it was a typical Sunday with weather changes and very low visibility," Zhou said after the race.

Race 19: Zhou finished 12th at the U.S. GP.

"We tried to stay out hoping for something to happen that would favor us, but eventually it didn't quite work out," Zhou said after the race.

Race 20: Zhou finished 13th at the Mexican GP.

"The beginning of the race was quite fun, and the extended stint was looking good, but we ended up in traffic after the pit stop and that compromised my race a little bit," Zhou said.

"The second part of the race was trickier: making progress turned out to be quite difficult on this track, which of course is not easy, and it has definitely been one of the toughest one for me as a rookie to get used to," he added.

Race 21: Zhou bumped back to 12th at the Brazilian GP.

"Our focus was to maximize the team's potential, and I'm confident we've managed that. Still, today has been a bit difficult on my part: I got my drink system straw stuck in my helmet at the beginning of the race, before managing to remove it, but, later on, we suffered from some turbo issues," Zhou said after the race.

Race 22: Zhou remained 12th at the year-end Abu Dhabi GP.

"I am so proud of this team, not just for tonight but for the whole season. We gave everything in the race and, despite not scoring points, we achieved our target, which was finishing P6 in the Championship," Zhou said after the race.