Guanyu-Zhou

1. Who is Guanyu Zhou?
2. Guanyu Zhou Junior Course
3. Guanyu Zhou’s F1 journey
4. AUTOhebdo's opinion on Guanyu Zhou
5. Learn more about Guanyu Zhou

1. Who is Guanyu Zhou?

Guanyu Zhou is a Chinese driver, born on May 30, 1999 in Shanghai. He played in Formula 1 at Sauber until 2024.

2. Guanyu Zhou Junior Course

Guanyu Zhou began his single-seater career in Italian and German Formula 4 in 2015 for Prema Powerteam. By achieving 9 podiums in the Italian series, he impressed and finished 2nd in the championship. In Germany, he also scored two new podiums.

The following season, the driver moved up the ranks and entered the European Formula 3 championship with Motopark. At the same time, Guanyu Zhou also played in the Toyota Racing Series where he finished 6th. He will have won a race and tasted champagne four times.

From 2017 to 2019, he continued in Formula 3 and finished 8th in his first two campaigns. For his third season in F3, he accumulated 2 victories, 3 pole positions and 6 podiums, which allowed him to move up to Formula 2, in the antechamber of Formula 1.

Spotted by Renault, the Shanghai native entered the Renault Sport Academy in 2019, and brilliantly finished as the championship's best rookie with a final 7th place.

Guanyu Zhou finished 3rd in Formula 2 in 2021. © Florent Gooden / DPPI

3. Guanyu Zhou’s F1 journey

A protégé of the Renault Sport Academy since 2019, Guanyu Zhou is familiarizing himself with the world of Formula 1. First by being appointed development driver then by being promoted to test driver in 2020.

The Chinese has even become an option (unlikely, of course) to replace Daniel Ricciardo at Alpine F1 Team in 2021, before the French team finally sets its sights on Fernando Alonso. In Austria, he even took part in his first free practice session with Alpine in Austria.

The Chinese driver is announced in Formula 1 in November 2021 to replace the Italian Antonio Giovinazzi within Alfa Romeo Racing, alongside Valtteri Bottas. After this formalization, Guanyu Zhou becomes the first Chinese driver in the history of Formula 1 to start a Grand Prix.

Guanyu Zhou with Alfa Romeo in F1 in 2022. © Antonin Vincent / DPPI

The Chinese driver's rookie season is satisfactory. Applied, likeable, he scores his first points at the start of the season. Then, the driver's first campaign in the premier class remains correct, although largely dominated by his teammate, multiple vice-world champion. Bottas scores more than 8 times more points, but is a mentor and a reference for Zhou. The Chinese driver has shown that he needs two years to adapt to a new category and be competitive, so he was able to prove himself during a second season at Alfa Romeo for the 2023 financial year.

In 2023, Zhou continued his apprenticeship in Formula 1, but the season proved to be complicated. The competitiveness of the Alfa Romeo C43 limited his opportunities to score points regularly. The Chinese driver nevertheless showed signs of improvement in qualifying, sometimes getting close to Bottas' level, but the gaps in the race remained marked, especially on circuits where race pace and tyre management were essential. He still recorded three top-10 finishes, and his six points only allowed him to finish 18th in the Drivers' Championship.

The team's lineup remains unchanged for 2024 despite a change in name and visual identity: Alfa Romeo has become Kick Sauber and has shed its burgundy to embrace a fluorescent apple green. The team, in transition with a view to its full integration by Audi, has not managed to develop a single-seater that meets the expectations of this level of competition. While the C44 was supposed to put Sauber back on the path to mid-table, the single-seater has proven to be far from expectations. Zhou has suffered a year without great results even if he has won the only four points of the team that finished last in the Constructors' standings.

At the end of this disastrous season, the team in full development separated from its two drivers and Guanyu Zhou found himself without a seat for 2025. He announced that he would not participate in another championship, in order to remain available if an opportunity arose during the year.

4. AUTOhebdo's opinion on Guanyu Zhou

Guanyu Zhou had a dream: to become the first Chinese driver to start a Formula 1 Grand Prix (Before him, Ma Quin Hua had participated in a free practice session). It is now done. If he managed to sign in F1 with Alfa Romeo, it is of course largely thanks to his finances and his Chinese nationality, which opens up enormous market prospects for the manufacturer he represents, in this case Alfa Romeo.

The Chinese driver was not the driver who most deserved to move up to F1 in the antechamber of F2, but to say that he did not have good results would be wrong. Even if it takes him a little longer than the others to adapt to new championships (3 years in F3, 3 years in F2), Guanyu Zhou always ends up getting up to speed. This first season marked by new regulations allowed the driver to find his first marks, despite a single-seater that was lacking in reliability. In 2023 and 2024, his performances and those of his single-seaters failed to convince Sauber and he finds himself without a seat for 2025. However, the Shanghai native prefers to remain in ambush with a view to an opportunity in F1.