What do Mick Schumacher, George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton have in common? They all came to the premier class of motorsports as Formula 2 world champions.
Guanyu Zhou cannot boast such a resume for his Formula 1 debut in the 2022 season. He “only” finished third last year behind Oscar Piastri and Robert Schwartzman. And yet all eyes are on Zhou.
Not only is he the first Chinese driver in the long history of Formula 1, he is also the only debutant this season.
So let’s start with the provocative question: Is Guanyu Zhou really a talented racing driver or rather a marketing pilot for the Far East?
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Guanyu Zhou with starting number 24 in the Alfa Romeo
After three years in Formula 2, Guanyu Zhou will be in the cockpit of Formula 1 in the 2022 F1 season. The Chinese is thus making history for his country and chose the starting number 24 for this purpose. He had already raced one class lower with this number.
In Chinese culture, the number 4 actually stands for great misfortune, but Zhou is not bothered by that. He chose 24 primarily as a dedication to basketball legend Kobe Bryant.
For the last ten years of his career, Bryant wore the number 24 on his jersey with the LA Lakers.
“He was a huge inspiration to me as a kid,” Zhou said. “Before I got interested in motorsports, I watched basketball. I’m a huge fan of his, listened to his stories and how hard he worked.”
“It’s pretty impressive when you’re at that level in your sport and still work harder than anyone else,” chats the 22-year-old, who hopes to succeed in Formula 1 with that same work ethic.
Incidentally, because of Bryant, the Formula 1 debutant is also sporting the colors purple and yellow on his helmet.
Guanyu Zhou profile
Long way from Guanyu Zhou to Formula 1
As a Chinese, Guanyu Zhou didn’t have it as easy on his way to Formula 1 as racers from tradition-rich nations like Great Britain, Italy or Germany.
In 2007, the Shanghai-born driver sat in a kart for the first time and made his first motorsport experiences on home tracks. He already had a fascination for loud cars as a child, as he once told Motorsport magazine in an interview.
Since the Chinese competition couldn’t keep up, Guanyu Zhou and his parents moved to England when he was 12. He quickly realizes, “If you win everything at home, you won’t even get close to the top-10 in the UK.”
In 2014, Zhou switched to formula racing and took his first steps in the Ferrari Driver Academy. However, his time in Formula 4 and Formula 3, among others, was not crowned with excessive success.
The consequence? Zhou switched to the Renault junior team and has been racing in Formula 2 ever since. For UNI-Virtuosi, he achieved successive world championship positions of 7th, 6th and 3rd place.
Is Guanyu Zhou good enough for Formula 1?
The prize question, given his often unremarkable performances in Formula 2, is whether Guanyu Zhou has the necessary quality for F1. Already, he’s promoting himself as likely to be behind the wheel of the Alfa Romeo in 2022.
“People have to understand that first,” the youngster stresses. But the fact is that outside of Asia, Zhou has yet to win a major junior title.
This makes him fundamentally different from others like Mick Schumacher, whose path has overlapped with Zhou’s on several occasions. In 2018, Zhou finished eighth in Formula 3, while “Quick Mick” – his teammate at the time – was champion.
In 2020, their paths overlapped again with a similar ending. While Schumacher won the title, Zhou “only” managed to finish sixth in the world championship.
Above all, the direct duel with veteran and teammate Valtteri Bottas will decide in 2022 how Zhou’s debut in Formula 1 will be judged. Can he prevail against the Finn?
Prediction on Guanyu Zhou’s Formula 1 debut year
So how will Guanyu Zhou’s first year in Formula 1 go? For sure, like Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin and Yuki Tsunoda last year, the Chinese driver will need some time to get used to the higher level.
After all, there were no crashes or similar mishaps during the tests that would have made him unpopular with his own team. Meanwhile, the big question will be how well Alfa Romeo is positioned.
The bookmakers expect the racing team to be quite far behind among the constructors in their Formula 1 forecasts. That could ultimately lead to Zhou trailing the two Haas rookies without a chance, as he did last year.
However, Zhou is unlikely to finish above the top-15. He is the only driver without Formula 1 experience and must correct this disadvantage race by race.
Until he is no longer a rookie himself next year…
