1. Zhou Guanyu is a Chinese racing driver, who serves as a reserve driver in Formula One for Ferrari.
55 Facts About Zhou Guanyu
1. 2.
Zhou Guanyu signed for Alfa Romeo in 2022 to partner Valtteri Bottas, scoring his first career point on debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
3.
Zhou Guanyu was born on 30 May 1999 in Shanghai, China.
4.
Zhou Guanyu made his first and only appearance in the Karting World Championship, driving for Ricky Flynn Motorsport alongside Lando Norris and Jehan Daruvala.
5.
Zhou Guanyu joined Prema Powerteam for the 2015 Italian F4 Championship.
6.
Zhou Guanyu competed in selected rounds of the German ADAC F4 Championship, achieving two podium finishes in Spielberg and Spa.
7.
Zhou Guanyu joined team Motopark for the 2016 FIA European F3 Championship.
8.
Zhou Guanyu stayed for a second F3 season by rejoining Prema and improved to 8th in standings with 5 podium finishes.
9.
Zhou Guanyu won his second F3 race in Hockenheim, finishing the season 8th in the standings, with 3 poles, and 2 wins.
10.
In December 2018, Zhou Guanyu joined UNI-Virtuosi Racing along with Luca Ghiotto for the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship.
11.
Zhou Guanyu achieved a maiden feature race podium in Barcelona after a strong qualifying and leading most of the race before dropping to third due to tyre degradation.
12.
Zhou Guanyu subsequently achieved another 3rd in the Monaco sprint race by overtaking Artem Markelov at the start.
13.
At Silverstone, Zhou Guanyu scored his first Formula 2 pole position, becoming the first Chinese driver to do so.
14.
Later, Zhou Guanyu scored third place in the sprint race at Paul Ricard.
15.
Zhou Guanyu finished seventh in the championship and was awarded the Anthoine Hubert Award for being the highest-finishing rookie.
16.
Zhou Guanyu remained at UNI-Virtuosi for the 2020 season, partnering Ferrari Driver Academy member Callum Ilott.
17.
Zhou Guanyu took his second Formula 2 pole position at the opening race at the Red Bull Ring.
18.
Later in the year, Zhou Guanyu won his first Formula 2 race in Sochi, after Aitken and Ghiotto crashed at lap 5 of the sprint race, causing a premature end of the race.
19.
Zhou Guanyu entered his third F2 season staying with UNI-Virtuosi and partnering Felipe Drugovich.
20.
Zhou Guanyu took pole position in the opening round at Bahrain and converted the pole to his first feature race win in F2.
21.
Zhou Guanyu broke his duck by taking his third victory of the season in the feature race in Britain, beating out Ticktum for the victory.
22.
At the following round in Monza Zhou Guanyu was able to end up on the podium twice, losing out to Theo Pourchaire and Piastri in races one and three respectively.
23.
Zhou Guanyu bounced back in the final round at Abu Dhabi, signing off his F2 career by winning the second sprint race and finishing second in the feature race.
24.
Zhou Guanyu finished the season third in the championship, having achieved 4 wins, 1 pole and 9 podiums.
25.
Zhou Guanyu won the championship after achieving 4 wins, 5 poles and 11 podiums in the season.
26.
In 2014, Zhou Guanyu joined the Ferrari Driver Academy while competing in karting.
27.
Zhou Guanyu left the academy at the end of 2018 and joined the Renault Sport Academy the following year ahead of his move into Formula 2.
28.
Zhou Guanyu was promoted to the role of Test Driver in 2020.
29.
Zhou Guanyu remained part of the rebranded Alpine Academy for 2021 and made his Formula One race weekend debut for Alpine F1 Team, driving the A521 during the first practice session of the Austrian Grand Prix.
30.
Zhou Guanyu signed with Alfa Romeo for the 2022 Formula One season, partnering Valtteri Bottas and becoming China's first Formula One race driver.
31.
Zhou Guanyu chose 24 as his permanent racing number to honour his sporting hero Kobe Bryant, who wore the number during his basketball career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
32.
At the Canadian Grand Prix, Zhou Guanyu reached the third qualifying session for the first time and finished the race eighth, scoring points for the second time.
33.
Zhou Guanyu was extracted and taken to the medical centre, and then declared fit after being observed.
34.
Zhou Guanyu later commented that the halo saved his life during the crash.
35.
Zhou Guanyu scored another point by finishing tenth at the Italian Grand Prix, which ended behind the safety car.
36.
Zhou Guanyu finished sixteenth at the rain-shortened Japanese Grand Prix, but a late pit stop for new tyres allowed him to claim the fastest lap for the first time in his career.
37.
Zhou Guanyu ended the season eighteenth in the World Drivers' Championship with six points to teammate Bottas's 49.
38.
Zhou Guanyu claimed his first points-scoring finish of the season at the Australian Grand Prix with ninth place, having started seventeenth.
39.
Zhou Guanyu scored points again at the Spanish Grand Prix, starting thirteenth and finishing ninth.
40.
Zhou Guanyu achieved his best Formula One qualifying performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix, setting the fastest Q1 time and then qualifying fifth.
41.
Zhou Guanyu was slow off the start line and was then involved in a first-corner collision for which he received a time penalty; he went on to finish the race sixteenth.
42.
Zhou Guanyu started fifteenth on the grid at the Dutch Grand Prix but a call to change to intermediate tyres after lap one promoted him as high as second place.
43.
Zhou Guanyu eventually dropped outside the top ten and later crashed out of the race when the rain returned.
44.
Zhou Guanyu reached Q3 in qualifying at the Mexico City Grand Prix, but was unable to hold off the cars behind and was classified fourteenth at the finish.
45.
Zhou Guanyu finished eighteenth in the World Drivers' Championship with six points, an identical result to 2022.
46.
Autosport praised Zhou Guanyu for "holding his own" against Bottas but identified qualifying as an area for improvement, and RaceFans described his performance in 2023 as "professional if unspectacular".
47.
Zhou Guanyu completed the race in his home city of Shanghai for the first time in April as the Chinese Grand Prix returned to the calendar for the 2024 season.
48.
Zhou Guanyu improved from seventeenth on the grid to eleventh at the finish at the opening race, the Bahrain Grand Prix.
49.
Zhou Guanyu crashed in the final practice session at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and the team were unable to repair his car in time to set a qualifying lap; he finished the race last of the running drivers in eighteenth place.
50.
Zhou Guanyu damaged his front wing in qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix and was forced to start the race from the pit lane due to a different specification replacement part being fitted; the team had not brought spares of the current design to Australia.
51.
Zhou Guanyu finished 16th in the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix after a three-car collision between Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen.
52.
Zhou Guanyu was last of the finishers after home hero George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly retired.
53.
Zhou Guanyu scored Sauber's lone points of the 2024 season at the Qatar Grand Prix, qualifying twelfth and finishing eighth after two safety cars.
54.
Zhou Guanyu left Sauber at the end of the season, with Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto joining for 2025, prior to their takeover by Audi.
55.
Zhou Guanyu joined Ferrari as a reserve driver for the 2025 season.