Zhou Guanyu has revealed that he will return to Ferrari in 2025. The Chinese driver will take up the role of Ferrari reserve driver, alongside Italy’s Antonio Giovinazzi.
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The news arrives almost three months after Kick Sauber announced that it would be parting ways with Zhou at the end of the 2024 Formula 1 Season.
https://everythingtrackside.com/zhou-reflects-on-chinese-gp/
Over the course of his three seasons in Formula 1, Zhou took part in sixty eight Grands Prix, scored a total of sixteen points and set the fastest lap of a Grand Prix twice – in Japan in 2022 and in Bahrain in 2023.
Those sixteen points came from seven point scoring finishes. The first of these came from his F1 debut in Bahrain in 2022. He finished in P10. While he was unable to score points at his home race in 2024, Zhou did score Kick Sauber’s only points of the season. This came at the penultimate race of the year in Qatar where he finished in P8. For this, he was also voted Driver of the Day by F1 fans worldwide.
Zhou Guanyu became a member of the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy from 2015 to 2018. During this time, he raced under the Maranello banner in Formula 4 and Formula 3 Series around the world. From 2017 to 2018, he also played the part of development driver for Formula E team, DS Techeetah.
In 2019, he graduated to Formula 2 where he raced for three seasons with UNI-Virtuosi Racing. He claimed five wins during his tenure and twenty podiums. Zhou had a best overall Championship position of third in 2021, finishing behind Oscar Piastri and Robert Shwartzman.
In the same year, Zhou left the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy and joined the Alpine Academy, where he served as a reserve driver for the team in 2020 and 2021.
Zhou Guanyu was then announced as a Formula 1 driver for Alfa Romeo for 2022. He stayed with the team when it morphed into Kick Sauber in 2024.
Zhou became the first ever Chinese born driver to race in Formula 1.
Feature Image: Kick Sauber Media Centre