30.01.2024The catching up in Australia: The Alfa Romeo duo from Minichamps

The Italian manufacturer, whose efforts are supported by the Swiss Sauber team, was unable to continue the upward trend from the previous year. Nevertheless, Alfa Romeo set some highlights.

Alfa Romeo's involvement in modern Formula 1 began in 2019. But the team behind it has been active in the premier class since 1993. Peter Sauber, the founder and long-time team boss, has worked with numerous major automobile manufacturers over the past 30 years, including Mercedes, Ford and – with numerous successes – BMW. After the end of the cooperation with the Munich-based team, Sauber remained as an OEM-independent Formula 1-team from 2010 and celebrated the most successful year in the team's history in 2012 with a total of four podium successes. The driver pairing of the experienced Valtteri Bottas and the young talent Zhou Guanyu has been in use since 2022, with whom the team from Hinwil wants to maintain its position in the midfield.

Valtteri Bottas has been racing in Formula 1 since 2013. After four seasons at Williams, the Finn was hired at the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team alongside Lewis Hamilton. From 2017 to 2021, he helped the team to five constructors' titles in a row and also celebrated runner-up in the drivers' championship in 2019 and 2020. He then moved to Alfa Romeo for the 2022 season, took the team a significant step forward with his many years of experience and collected numerous top 10 placements.

His teammate Zhou Guanyu, on the other hand, only celebrated his debut in the premier class in 2022, after three years in Formula 2. As a result, he became the first Chinese ever to take part in a Formula 1 race and make it into the points. After a strong rookie year, he was also signed for the coming 2023 season and started again alongside Bottas.

The Australian Grand Prix on the Melbourne circuit was the third race on the 2023 calendar. After a difficult qualifying, the two Alfa Romeo drivers only started the race from positions 17 and 19. But thanks to a strong comeback, Bottas finished the race in eleventh place, while Zhou Guanyu even finished in the points with ninth place and thus collected his first points of the season.

For the strong Australian race of the two Alfa Romeos, Minichamps has brought two models in scale 1:18 onto the market, each limited to 226 examples. The Alfa Romeo C43 has a true-to-original cockpit replica with a driver figure and is available exclusively from ck-modelcars in a high-quality collector's folding box.

Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo C43 #77 Australian GP Formula 1 2023 1:18 Minichamps, RRP €199.95, item-no.: 147230177

Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo C43 #24 Australian GP Formula 1 2023 1:18 Minichamps, RRP €199.95, item-no.: 147230124

Products

	Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo C43 #24 Australian GP Formula 1 2023 1:18 Minichamps	143,96 €
	Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo C43 #77 Australia GP Formula 1 2023 1:18 Minichamps	143,96 €