Without a seat for 2025, what does F1 driver Zhou Guanyu do next?
F1 star Zhou Guanyu knows a late-season seat-saving turnaround is unlikely, but as the Stake F1 Kick Sauber driver explains to Esquire, he’s learned that just about anything can happen on the grid
ZHOU GUANYU is no stranger to being in the hot seat. In China, he’s something of a sporting hero crossed with a pop star as the country’s first ever Formula 1 driver. He’s a regular on the cover of Chinese fashion magazines, and his cat Da Zhuang – whose name translates to Sweet Corn – is a social media star in her own right. But if the expectations of 1.3 billion people are somewhat stressful, Zhou does not show it.
Even amid the growing likelihood that this season could be his last in F1, the 25-year-old remains optimistic that his career in motorsport is just getting started. “Of course, I’m trying to give everything,” he tells me while sitting hunched on an ottoman in the Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber hospitality suite. “I’m trying to help turn this difficult season into some great results in the coming races.”
It’s a balmy September afternoon inside the paddock three days out from the Singapore Grand Prix, and despite the punishing heat and humidity and large fans swirling behind us, Zhou’s hair remains perfectly coiffed. He considers Singapore another “home race” because so many Chinese F1 fans have come here to see him after missing out on tickets for the Shanghai Grand Prix.
While Shanghai has held a Grand Prix since 2005, the sport arguably did not truly take off there until Zhou took his seat at Kick Sauber (then Alfa Romeo) three years ago. “When you grow up you have idols, you go to the races to watch them – for me it was Alonso – now there are people doing that to me and I feel the inspiration of being a role model for motorsports in China,” he says of his superstar status in his home country. “It’s very special, I’m just very honoured to be the person.”
Like many young karters looking to break into professional motorsport, Zhou and his family left their homeland and moved to England when he was barely a teenager. “From the family side, you know, they’ve been always there behind my back, behind my shoulder to give me the fullest, all the support I need,” he says.
The bright spot of Zhou’s otherwise challenging season to date was fulfilling his boyhood dream of racing for a home crowd in his native Shanghai, which finally held its first race since the pandemic this past April. “I still always remember that thing I had in April in Shanghai,” he says. “Nothing felt like that ever in any other race. I think it’s not just a highlight of the season, but the highlight of my career at the moment.”
I note the careful addition of “at the moment” to Zhou’s words. His ascension to the Formula 1 grid in 2022 was somewhat overshadowed by conversations about his potential to boost the sport in China and, in turn, lure lucrative Chinese sponsors to Alfa Romeo.
For Zhou, who rose through the ranks in karting and finished third in the Formula 2 tournament the year he inked the deal with Alfa Romeo, the cynicism surrounding his grid position felt racially motivated. He quickly silenced those critics after scoring a points finish in his maiden race in Bahrain in 2022. This year though, the stats are bleak.
Both Zhou and his Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas have yet to score a single point all season with just six races left to go. Of course, the drivers are probably not the main problem. As Zhou points out, the Sauber cars have been plagued by performance issues and slow pit stops.
Next year, Sauber is set to rebrand as Audi in a major overhaul and have signed F1 veteran Nico Hulkenberg and Formula Two championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto, leaving no remaining seats for 2025. Suddenly, Zhou and Bottas are both staring down the possibility of leaving the sport at the end of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Their odds of finding seats elsewhere aren’t helped by the fact that the 2025 driver’s market is the most crowded in years. Reserve drivers like Ferrari’s Oliver Bearman and Williams’ midseason replacement Franco Colapinto have already made their names after scoring points in races. Meanwhile, Alpine has tapped highly touted Aussie Jack Doohan to partner with Pierre Gasly next year, after giving Esteban Ocon the boot.
If there is space for one of the Sauber drivers to remain in F1, Bottas, who is coincidentally sitting one table over talking to another journalist, is the most likely contender. I overhear the aforementioned journalist heap praise on the Finnish racer, who has notched up 10 race wins, 20 poles and 67 podiums in just over a decade. Zhou has yet to score a podium in Formula 1.
While driver’s market talk swirls around the paddock, Zhou is quick to steer the conversation back to the actual race. “I’m at the moment doing the individual steps and making sure I just focus on the individual race weekend, because there’s no need to think about things too far forward,” he says. “Of course, you know you want to make sure that you’re in the right position going forward.”
He pauses.
“And also you want to secure your future in Formula One. But at this point I’m focused on the upcoming races, trying to give everything I have, trying to maximise the potential of the car we’ve currently got.”
Outside of racing, Zhou likes to spend time in Shanghai with friends and family or his cat but he can’t remember a time when he wasn’t constantly travelling. “I’m used to this very busy lifestyle, in a way I enjoy it,” he says. “I think people see exactly what we do, like in front of the TV on the job but the amount of work that goes behind the scenes, also in the preparation, the gym, sweat all that is so high level intensive, but I love it.”
When he’s not a full time cat daddy, the racer is pursuing his interest in design, including his signature race helmets and own merchandise. Zhou arrived at the paddock earlier in a baggy hoodie emblazoned with a cartoon of his pet cat before changing into a standard issue Sauber shirt for our interview. “You know, I love making different merch and different cool stuff. I mean, the helmet is a perfect example,” he says. “The inspiration is very individual depending on different races. I have like, 95 to 99 per cent of the input on my helmet, which is great.”
After every race weekend, Zhou carefully catalogs and stores each helmet, either on display at his home in Shanghai or in a special storage location. “It could be in the evening, it could be midnight before I sleep, it could be in the morning, I just woke up suddenly and I say, ‘oh, this is a very cool idea for that race’ and I put that in my notebook, and then that’s it,” he says. “A few weeks before a race I send to the designer with a little bit my hand drawing, and then he will just put that into the template.”
But Zhou is quick to clarify that design is strictly a hobby. “I feel like my career will always be related to racing,” he says. “So it doesn’t matter 10 years later, 15 years later, it will be related to racing. But a hobby definitely can be the fashion.”
Whether that means remaining on the Formula 1 grid, becoming a reserve driver or exploring another series like the fast-growing Formula E, Zhou knows better than to try and predict the future. “Things can always happen in this sport,” he says. “You know, things can change around very quickly. So I’m just making sure that every weekend, I stay on top of myself, and then when the opportunity comes, I’m ready to grab it.”
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