Zhou Guanyu wants to define his future as soon as possible: his priority is to stay in Formula 1, with Ferrari looming in the background.
We had already discussed the possibility of Zhou Guanyu joining Ferrari as a third driver for 2025, following the announcement of his non-renewal with Kick Sauber. He would replace Ollie Bearman, who is set to make his full-time debut with Haas.
Nevertheless, in recent days, rumours have increasingly pointed towards Arthur Leclerc, Charles’s younger brother, as a candidate for the role of third driver for the Maranello team. He is even expected to take part in FP1 during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, although official confirmation is still pending. Additionally, he recently participated in the WEC rookie tests in Bahrain.
In an interview during the week leading up to his penultimate Formula 1 race in Qatar, Zhou Guanyu spoke about his future: “We are in talks with several teams, and, of course, Ferrari remains one of the most interested in me.“
“We’ll see; obviously, there are many things coming up in the next few weekends to help make a decision. But it’s clear that we are looking at all the options available and will see where we stand. On my part, I’m not ready to commit to the future just yet because I want to ensure everything is clear and well-defined, with a strong commitment to the next project.” ”, added the Chinese driver.
In recent months, Zhou Guanyu’s name has been strongly linked to Formula E, as a representative of China following the debut of the Shanghai E-Prix in 2024 and the departure of the ERT team. However, his priority has always been to remain within the Formula 1 sphere: “Let’s hope something happens and that a decision is made soon. I think I’ll have a clear idea in the coming weeks.”
In the meantime, Zhou Guanyu wants to finish his time as a full-time Formula 1 driver on a high note. During the Las Vegas Grand Prix, he held the tenth position for several stages of the race, but a pit stop that may have been a bit too late forced him to drop to thirteenth place, still ahead of his current teammate, Valtteri Bottas.
Nevertheless, the Chinese driver expressed satisfaction in the post-race interviews: “Today was a good race for me. It’s been a while since we fought in the mid-pack near the top 10, and today, I feel we finally had a real chance. I believe we maximised the result we could have had with our pace, especially considering there was not a lot of drama happening ahead.
The last weekend in Las Vegas was definitely positive for Zhou, who beat his teammate Bottas both in qualifying and during the race.
In the last two races, the Kick Sauber team will certainly need to try to remove the “zero” from their points tally for 2024, bearing in mind that Haas, with Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in 2021, was the last team to finish a season without scoring any points.
In this regard, Zhou Guanyu is confident, even though the layout of the Losail circuit is the complete opposite of that of Las Vegas, with numerous high-speed corners, unlike the American track’s stop-and-go sections: “It’s encouraging to be back where we were this weekend. It’s a step forward and it gives us confidence; things are looking more promising as we head to Qatar for the next round.”
PHOTO: Zhou Guanyu, Kick Sauber, F1.
