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Alfa Romeo Welcomes F1 First Chinese Driver: Zhou Guanyu

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Zhou Guanyu
Picture: dutchphotoagency

Come subsequent 12 months, 22-year-old Zhou Guanyu can be Method One (F1)’s first Chinese language driver after signing with Alfa Romeo. Zhou replaces Italian Antonio Giovinazzi and can accomplice Valtteri Bottas, who is about to depart Mercedes and former race accomplice Lewis Hamilton.

The addition of Zhou concludes the fleet of drivers which might be competing within the 2022 grid.

At the moment holding on to second place within the Method Two championship, Zhou is 36 factors behind Oscar Piastri with two extra rounds to go subsequent month in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi

Zhou Guanyu, F2
Picture: Zhou Guanyu’s Twitter

Zhou can be the check driver for the Renault-owned Alpine F1 team for this season and has been doing so for the previous two years. He first joined the French firm in 2019 and was a part of the Ferrari driver academy between 2014 to 2018.

Coming over from Alpine, Zhou brings together with him substantial monetary backing to Alfa Romeo. The business Chinese language sponsors which might be supporting Zhou is without doubt one of the causes the British firm signed him. 

In an article by the BBC, workforce principal Frederic Vasseur admitted that the “additional earnings Zhou brings to Alfa Romeo would imply that the workforce would be capable to function at F1’s price cap subsequent season”. Whereas the larger groups haven’t any difficulty with the brand new finances cap, smaller groups like Alfa Romeo are aiming to draw extra funding to hit the restrict and compete on equal phrases.

Alfa Romeo, 2020 Shakedown, Fiorano
ImageL Alfa Romeo

However greater than the monetary alternatives, the workforce values Zhou’s greater than something. Vasseur cited the younger driver’s latest F2 victories in Bahrain and Silverstone this 12 months as proof of Zhou’s potential to compete on the highest stage.

“I don’t know if in the long run he can be a champion or not in F2,” Vasseur stated. “However this received’t change the potential that he’s a frontrunner towards another very skilled guys.”

In a press release put out by Alfa Romeo, the carmaker described Zhou as “a trailblazer who will write a pivotal web page of his nation’s motor sport historical past”.

“I dreamt from a younger age of climbing as excessive as I can in a sport that I’m captivated with and now the dream has come true,” stated Zhou with reference to his new appointment. 

“To be the primary ever Chinese language driver in Method One is a breakthrough for Chinese language motor sport historical past. I do know a number of hopes can be resting on me and, as ever, I’ll take this as motivation to grow to be higher and obtain extra.”

Zhou’s new function in Alfa Romeo comes just some weeks after F1 confirmed that the Chinese language Grand Prix can be again on the calendar in 2023 after a three-season hiatus as a result of pandemic. The massive business alternative that China can convey to the desk makes it a sizzling marketplace for the game to take off. In consequence, the organisation is decided to develop its progress in China because the nation has a probably enormous market to be explored.

For extra F1 reads, click on here.

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