Why Alfa's 2022 F1 rookie feels less pressure than racing in F2

When Guanyu Zhou scored his first European karting victory, the awards ceremony didn’t involve a Chinese flag – simply because the organisers hadn’t anticipated a driver from China would be among the podium contenders.

“It was in France, in Salbris”, Zhou tells GP Racing. “I won my first-ever European race, and then there was a British flag [on a podium]. So I wasn’t really happy about it. What was nice is that afterwards you could see it [the Chinese flag] everywhere. There would not just be the flag for the podium, there’d be flags on the circuits, like displayed on the main straight, where you have flags of most drivers’ nationalities.”

Zhou moved from Shanghai to Sheffield at the age of 12 with the goal of becoming F1’s first Chinese driver. “Normal people,” he says, “would go to London or at least Manchester. But the race team I joined are based there, and you don’t want to be somewhere far from them.”

The team was Strawberry Racing, and together with Zhou it made sure the Chinese flag was a regular requirement for podium ceremonies at races in the UK and Europe. By the age of 14 Zhou was spotted by Ferrari, and he moved to single-seaters as a member of its Academy.

There was a good season in F4 in 2015 followed by a transition to European F3. Then his career stalled somewhat – and a potential title shot in what was his third season in the category fell apart beginning with a torrid outing at Spa where he’d arrived a point off the series lead.

“At Spa I had my best qualifying, but I came out of the weekend with zero points, and in two of the races I was taken out by a team-mate,” Zhou explains. “And then things just went a little bit weird on my side.”

That team-mate, whose name Zhou omits, was Mick Schumacher. The German was much further down the standings coming to Spa, but then it seemed he – along with another team-mate, Robert Shwartzman – simply moved up a gear. Schumacher won seven out of the next eleven races and was crowned champion, while Zhou would slip to eighth.

Zhou was initially linked with Ferrari before switching allegiance to Alpine

Photo by: James Gasperotti / Motorsport Images

“Even now I don’t know what happened there,” Zhou says. “All I can say is that I lost all the speed I had without changing my driving too much. I was fighting for the championship and [then was] struggling to make top 10 in qualifying. So it was a very tough season.”

That was a good moment to change everything. In 2019 Zhou not only moved to F2, switching from Prema to UNI-Virtuosi, but also left the Ferrari Driver Academy to align with Renault.

“With Renault there were a lot more F1 opportunities,” he explains, “a lot more private testing days, a lot more simulator [time], where in Ferrari things are very complicated. With Renault you do feel you’re like number one or number two [driver] in the programme, they believe in you. They want to use you even as an opportunity to try and develop the car, try to do stuff with you. So you do test for the F1 team, rather than just be an Academy member.”

"It was quite tough, because there was talk about opportunities for me to be taking the [F1] seat. People talk about you, and you have to be doing everything perfect. If you do little mistakes, they try to make it a lot bigger than what it is" Guanyu Zhou

Zhou’s strong debut F2 campaign was followed by a disappointing 2020 in which, as he puts it, he “lost like 50 points just breaking down while leading or just being on the podium position in several races”.

Last season, he admits, represented probably his final opportunity to move to F1 – though the backing from China meant it wasn’t quite ‘title or bust’. Zhou did take an early lead in the standings, before some technical issues and his own mistakes dropped him behind Oscar Piastri and Shwartzman.

Some of his mistakes, such as spinning out on his way to the grid at Sochi, Zhou admits came as a result of increased pressure as he closed in on the Alfa Romeo seat.

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“In general I’m okay to deal with it, but last year I did feel quite a lot of pressure,” he says. “It was quite tough, because there was talk about opportunities for me to be taking the [F1] seat. People talk about you, and you have to be doing everything perfect. If you do little mistakes, they try to make it a lot bigger than what it is. The pressure gets you.”

Zhou says he felt much more pressure in 2021, knowing it was his last chance to make it into F1

Photo by: James Gasperotti / Motorsport Images

The Alfa deal, announced a few weeks after Sochi, left many disappointed given it effectively meant runaway leader Piastri wouldn’t be on the 2022 F1 grid.

“In general I was able to do the job on track, but people weren’t too happy for some reason,” says Zhou. “But it’s not my problem. My goal is to be myself and try to do what I can for my nation, to have that Chinese flag [on the podium], Chinese national anthem on the top step, that’s what makes me proud.”

Will the pressure to deliver and prove critics wrong be worse in F1? Zhou doesn’t think so.

“Last year I had more pressure than this year,” he insists, “because last year if I don’t get a seat in F1 and don’t become the [first] Chinese [F1] driver, I don’t think there will be one in the next five-10 years. I wanted to do that.

“So I’m happy I achieved that, and now it’s just [about] making people proud.”

China's first F1 driver, Zhou is keen to make an impression with Alfa Romeo

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images