Ferrari Academy driver Zhou in F2 move with Russian Time's replacement
Ferrari Academy driver and Formula 3 European Championship race winner Guan Yu Zhou will compete for the new UNI-Virtuosi Formula 2 team in 2019
The Chinese driver was eighth in his second season in European F3 with Prema Racing, taking two victories and six podiums with the squad this year.
He will now graduate to F2 with UNI-Virtuosi, which has taken Russian Time's entry and cars for 2019 - although the majority of the staff will remain the same as Virtuosi ran the operation for four seasons.
Zhou drove for the team alongside Luca Ghiotto in last week's post-season F2 test in Abu Dhabi, and was fourth quickest in the afternoon session on the final day.
"I really feel confident about myself and also the team which is working together with me and behind me," Zhou told Autosport.
"The three-day Abu Dhabi F2 test looked very positive, the speed was very strong.
"The team is pleased about our performance, so we are really looking forward to the season ahead.
"I am really happy to be in the team, the guys have a lot [of] belief in me, I trust and believe in them as well.
"I definitely want to score podiums, hopefully starting from the beginning of the season, of course to score some victories will be nice in the rookie year.
"We all know it will be a tough year with everything new - new tracks, the new [for 2018] F2 car. It won't be easy, but we will try our best and try to achieve the targets as soon as possible."
Zhou is the sixth driver to be confirmed in F2 for next season, although a number of seats are believed to have been filled already.
The same number of 10 teams - each with two cars - will compete in 2019.
2019 F2 line-up so far
Carlin: Nobuharu Matsushita
ART: Nikita Mazepin, Nyck de Vries
Prema: Mick Schumacher, Sean Gelael
UNI-Virtuosi: Guan Yu Zhou
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About this article
| Series | FIA F2 |
| Drivers | Guanyu Zhou |
| Author | Jack Benyon |
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