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Alfa Romeo Sauber will work with rookie Zhou Guanyu in an effort to prevent the anti-stall issues the Chinese driver has had in the opening two Formula 1 races of the season.
In Saudi Arabia a week ago, Zhou bogged down at the start before being pinched onto the apex kerb at Turn 1.
There, the Formula 2 race winner allowed the revs to drop too low, the car’s anti-stall kicking in which dropped him to the back of the pack as he recovered.
“Thing is just maybe he’s feeling with this kind of situation, to hear the engine graphs and what is going on, maybe we need to analyse a bit better,” explained Xevi Pujolar, the squad’s head of trackside engineering.”
The fault is not one with the car and is something the team will work on with Zhou to prevent a repeat in Melbourne this weekend.
“Definitely that everything is working as expected but for him it’s just something that he needs to understand,” Pujolar said.
“But there are different ways to solve the problem, and we’ll have a look with what’s the best way to do it for Melbourne.”
Aside from his sluggish start in Jeddah, Zhou has proved a solid performer in the opening two races of the season.
He finished 10th in Bahrain to score a point on debut and followed that up with an 11th place result in Saudi Arabia last time out.
In both instances he’s benefitted from the retirement of cars ahead of him, but that he was running at the chequered flag offers a promising start for the 22-year-old.
Formula 1 moves on to the Australian Grand Prix this weekend, the first time the event has been held since 2019.
On-track action in Albert Park begins on Thursday for support categories, and for Formula 1 at 13:00 AEST on Friday.
