Few people had Alfa Romeo finishing sixth in the constructors' standings 12 months ago.
In the end, they managed it by the skin of their teeth, finishing level on points with Aston Martin. It was a result which actually felt a little underwhelming for a team which had begun the 2022 season at a blistering pace.
An impressive 25 points from the first four races of the year had Alfa flying high. Valtteri Bottas was relishing being out from under the Mercedes microscope and the main man in his team for once. The Finn continued his impressive streak of qualifying results and was scoring points for fun in those early rounds.
Zhou Guanyu scored a point on debut and looked like he had settled into Formula 1 well. But quickly their progress began to get disrupted, not least by a swathe of reliability problems which reared their head in the thick of the season and caused several costly DNFs.
The main cause was their Ferrari power units, which also wreaked havoc on the progress of the Italian team, as well as their other customers Haas. The point at which the tide turned against Alfa Romeo is clear to see – 51 points scored in the first half of the season was followed by just four more in the second.
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That drop off will be a worrying one for the team heading into 2023. Ferrari say they are confident their power unit issues have been resolved and a new car could change everything, but the feeling is the momentum the Sauber team had might have dissipated.
Alfa Romeo have lost their team principal Frederic Vasseur to Ferrari (Getty Images)It remains to be seen how the team will be affected by the loss of Frederic Vasseur, a wily and experienced operator who was snatched up by Ferrari after the resignation of Mattia Binotto. Alfa are yet to replace him which, just six weeks before the first race weekend, cannot be ideal for preparations – it's a problem which needs a good solution as quickly as possible.
They have recruited one new member of senior management, though, in the form of Andreas Seidl. The German left the McLaren team principal job to become chief executive at Sauber – beginning the role a few years earlier than planned in the wake of Vasseur's departure to oversee the transition to becoming the Audi works team.
And that process really is the elephant in the room right now. This season will be Alfa Romeo's last in F1 and the team is likely to simply operate under the Sauber name until the Audi deal becomes official. But there is a fear that, while that wait goes on, the team may be left in limbo.
The 2023 season could be make-or-break for Zhou Guanyu's F1 career (Getty Images)Bottas' experience and racecraft may well be vital to the team in the meantime, especially if their car turns out to be not quite as competitive as they hope. His qualifying record is excellent and he has the know-how to turn strong results on a Saturday into points 24 hours later.
As for Zhou, he will be spurred on knowing this could be a make-or-break season for his Sauber career, and his time in F1 as a whole. He had already signed a contract extension before Haas let go of Mick Schumacher, otherwise he might have been replaced already.
The German will be gunning for a race seat in 2024 and will be attractive to Audi, so Zhou has to take a step up and make himself irreplaceable. How well he and his Alfa Romeo team do over the course of the coming season may well depend on how effectively they can block out the background noise.
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