Guanyu Zhou testing in a Ferrari at Mugello

Under the Tuscan sun, a red shape paraded across the asphalt of the Mugello circuit earlier this week. A racing car that was still racing around the world just two years ago was back in action for a few hours, just to let its V6 engine rev high. Ferrari SF-23 has found the trail again, a few months after having served in particular for Lewis Hamilton as a mount for his first run in red at Fiorano, then during another TPC (test on cars at least two years old) organized in Barcelona, ​​on the Circuit de Catalunya, in the company of his teammate Charles Leclerc.

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Neither the Briton nor the Monegasque were at the wheel in Tuscany, leaving it to Guanyu-Zhou to take a few laps in a Ferrari. The Chinese driver had already driven the Ferrari SF-23 in March, also in a TPC, on the Ferrari circuit in Fiorano. It was at Mugello that he returned to the track for the second time, rediscovering his driving sensations, he who was a regular at Alfa Romeo during the last three seasons.

Thanked by the Swiss team after 68 Grand Prix contested alongside Valtteri Bottas, the Shanghai native scored 16 points, with two 8th-place finishes as his best results. In qualifying, Zhou achieved his best starting position at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix. Qualifying 5th on the grid, he lost all the advantage of his glorious Saturday by harpooning Daniel Ricciardo, which created a chain reaction leading to the withdrawal of both Alpine.

Now without a full-time seat, Guanyu Zhou enjoys the prestige of wearing Ferrari red on race weekends, in a shadowy role. He could, however, leave the Scuderia at the end of the season if the opportunity to return to Formula 1 presents himself. He is notably in discussions with Cadillac, whose Team Principal is none other than his manager, Graeme Lowdon.

 

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