Guanyu Zhou

Guanyu Zhou

Zhou in 2019
Born	(1999-05-30) 30 May 1999 (age 22) Shanghai, China
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Chinese
2022 team	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari
Car number	24
FIA Formula 2 Championship career
Debut season	2019
Former teams	UNI-Virtuosi
Starts	68 (72 entries)
Wins	5
Podiums	20
Poles	3
Fastest laps	7
Best finish	3rd in 2021
Previous series
2019–21 2021 2016–18 2016 2015 2015	FIA Formula 2 Championship F3 Asian Championship FIA F3 European Championship Toyota Racing Series Italian Formula 4 Championship ADAC Formula 4
Championship titles
2021	F3 Asian Championship
Awards
2019	Anthoine Hubert Award

Zhou on Grid of ADAC F4 in Spa

Guanyu Zhou (Chinese: 周冠宇; pinyin: Zhōu Guànyǔ; born 30 May 1999) is a Chinese racing driver who is due to compete as an Alfa Romeo driver in the 2022 Formula One World Championship. He competed in the FIA Formula 2 Championship for UNI-Virtuosi Racing from 2019 to 2021, having finished 3rd in the 2021 campaign. He is a part of the Alpine Academy, and served as the test driver for the Renault F1 Team and the Alpine F1 Team in 2020 and 2021 respectively.^[1][2][3] Prior to that, he was a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy from 2014 to 2018, and served as the development driver for Formula E team DS Techeetah in 2018.^[4][5]

Zhou started his single seater career in 2015, competing in the Italian F4 Championship and ADAC Formula 4 with Prema Racing. After finding success in the Italian F4 Championship, he moved up to the European Formula 3 Championship with Motopark in 2016^[6] and Prema Racing in 2017 and 2018.^[7]

Career[]

Karting[]

Having started karting when he was eight years old in China, Zhou moved to Sheffield in 2012 for a more competitive racing environment.^[8] In 2013 racing with the Sheffield-based Strawberry Racing team, he won both the Super 1 National Rotax Max Junior Championship and Rotax Max Euro Challenge.^[9][10] For his final year of karting, Zhou finished 2nd in the Rotax Max Senior Euro Challenge and participated in selected rounds of WSK Champions Cup and the KF2 European Championship. He also made his first and only appearance in the Karting World Championship, driving for Ricky Flynn Motorsport alongside Lando Norris and Jehan Daruvala.^[11]

Formula 4[]

Zhou joined Prema Powerteam for the 2015 Italian F4 Championship. After winning a hat trick in round 2 Monza and consistently finishing on the podium, Zhou ended the season as vice-champion and best rookie, beating highly-rated Robert Shwartzman and David Beckmann. He also competed in selected rounds of the German ADAC F4 Championship, achieving two podium finishes in Spielberg and Spa.

FIA Formula 3 European Championship[]

Zhou joined team Motopark for the 2016 FIA European F3 Championship. After a successful season opener rounds in Paul Ricard and Hungaroring by finishing in 2 podium positions, Zhou struggled to find pace during the 2nd half of the season, finishing in 13th for his maiden season.

Zhou stayed for a second F3 season by rejoining Prema and improved to 8th in standings with 5 podium finishes. Season highlights included leading race 3 in Spa and holding back Lando Norris in the penultimate round.

After speculation of a possible move to F2, Zhou remained with Prema for a third F3 season. After a maiden career win in Pau, a podium in Hungaroring, and three consecutive podium finishes in Zandvoort, Zhou found him standing in 2nd, just a point behind teammate Marcus Armstrong. Despite a strong qualifying pace in Spa and Silverstone, Zhou suffered 4 consecutive retirements with a series of teammate collisions and tyre punctures. Zhou won his second F3 race in Hockenheim, finishing the season 8th in the standings, with 3 poles, and 2 wins.

FIA Formula 2[]

In December 2018, Zhou joined UNI-Virtuosi Racing along with Luca Ghiotto for the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship.^[12] Zhou achieved a maiden feature race podium in Barcelona after a strong qualifying and leading most of the race before dropping to third due to tyre degradation. He subsequently achieved another 3rd in the Monaco sprint race by overtaking Artem Markelov at the start. At Silverstone, Zhou scored his first Formula 2 pole position, becoming the first Chinese driver to do so. Later, Zhou also scored third place in the sprint race at Paul Ricard. In the feature race at Silverstone, he lost positions to his teammate and race winner Luca Ghiotto and the second-place driver Nicholas Latifi. In Abu Dhabi, he also finished third with the fastest lap in Race 1. He finished seventh in the championship and was subsequently awarded the Anthoine Hubert Award for being the highest-finishing rookie.

Zhou in Austria 2019

Zhou remained at UNI-Virtuosi for the 2020 season, partnering Ferrari Driver Academy member Callum Ilott. Zhou took his second Formula 2 pole position at the opening race at the Red Bull Ring.^[13] However, his car suffered electronic problems whilst leading the feature race, causing him to drop to 17th.^[14] Later in the year, Zhou won his first Formula 2 race in Sochi, after Aitken and Ghiotto crashed at lap 5 of the sprint race, causing a premature end of the race.^[15] Over the season, Zhou achieved 6 podiums and finished sixth in the championship.

Zhou entered his third F2 season staying with UNI-Virtuosi and partnering Felipe Drugovich. He took pole position in the opening round at Bahrain and converted the pole to his first feature race win in F2.^[16] The Chinese driver took another victory in the first sprint race in Monaco ahead of his team-mate Drugovich. However, after another podium in Baku, Zhou went four races without scoring points, with a brake failure and a resulting collision with Dan Ticktum in the first lap of the second race in Azerbaijan and a spin in the first sprint race at Silverstone allowing fellow academy member Oscar Piastri to take the lead in the standings. Zhou broke his duck by taking his third victory of the season in the feature race in Britain, beating out Ticktum for the victory. At the following round in Monza Zhou was able to end up on the podium twice, losing out to Théo Pourchaire and Piastri in races one and three respectively. Unfortunately for the Chinese driver, he stalled his car following a spin before the first race in Sochi and only managed to finish the feature race in sixth place, thus losing more ground to leader Piastri, who went into the penultimate round with a 36-point advantage. In Round 7 at Jeddah, he dropped to third in the standings after a spin caused by colliding with Christian Lundgaard in the first sprint race. He bounced back in the final round at Abu Dhabi, signing off his F2 career by winning the second sprint race and finishing second in the feature race. He finished the season third in the championship, having achieved 4 wins, 1 pole and 9 podiums.

Formula One[]

In mid 2014, he joined the Ferrari Driver Academy while still karting.^[4] He stayed in the Ferrari Driver Academy until the end of 2018. In 2019, he joined the Renault Sport Academy and served as a development driver for the Renault Formula One Team.^[17] In 2020, Zhou was promoted to Test Driver for the Renault Formula One Team.^[2]

He also participated in the Virtual Grand Prix Series for Renault, an FIA launched Esports series in place of the F1 Grands Prix postponed or cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. He won the Bahrain Virtual Grand Prix, the first Virtual GP of the replacement series.^[18] He, along with Piastri and Lundgaard, tested the Renault R.S.18 at the Bahrain International Circuit in 2020.^[19] At the end of 2020, he participated in the Abu Dhabi post-season test for Renault, alongside Fernando Alonso.^[20] He made his F1 race weekend debut for Alpine F1 Team during the first practice session of the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix, becoming the second driver from mainland China to participate in an F1 Grand Prix, after Ma Qinghua.^[21]

Alfa Romeo (2022–)[]

Zhou signed with Alfa Romeo for the 2022 Formula One season, where he would be partnering with Valtteri Bottas, becoming China's first full-time Formula One driver.^[22] In a press release following the announcement Zhou stated that he was "well prepared for the immense challenge of Formula 1" and that him coming into the series would be "a breakthrough for Chinese motorsport history".^[23]

Karting record[]

Karting career summary[]

Racing record[]

Racing career summary[]

Complete Italian F4 Championship results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Toyota Racing Series results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete FIA Formula 3 European Championship results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Macau Grand Prix results[]

Year	Team	Car	Qualifying	Quali Race	Main race
2016	Motopark	Dallara F312	20th	DNF	15th
2017	Prema Powerteam	Dallara F317	10th	10th	8th
2018	SJM Theodore Racing by Prema	Dallara F317	5th	24th	11th

Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position points) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

Complete F3 Asian Championship results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One participations[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

^* Season still in progress.

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guanyu Zhou.

• Guanyu Zhou career summary at DriverDB.com
• Guanyu Zhou on Twitter
• Guanyu Zhou on Weibo
• Profile at ferrari.com
• Profile at renaultsport.com