A Shanghai-born driver who won the 2021 Formula 3 Asian title, raced for Alfa Romeo and Sauber from 2022 to 2024 and now works as a reserve driver.
Zhou Guanyu is a Chinese racing driver born in Shanghai on 30 May 1999. He raced for Alfa Romeo and then Sauber in Formula One from 2022 to 2024, scoring sixteen championship points and two fastest laps. He was the first driver from China to race in the series, and was named reserve driver for Cadillac in 2026.
Zhou Guanyu is a Chinese racing driver who became the first Chinese driver to race in Formula One when he joined Alfa Romeo in 2022. Before that he built a junior career in Italy, Germany and Britain and spent years in the Ferrari and Alpine academies. He left Sauber at the end of 2024 and now works in a reserve role for Cadillac.
How did Zhou start in karting?
Zhou started karting at the age of eight in China. In 2012 he moved to Sheffield, England, because the racing was more competitive there, and he attended Westbourne School while racing. His breakthrough came in 2013 with the Sheffield-based Strawberry Racing team, when he won the Super 1 National Rotax Max Junior Championship and the Rotax Max Euro Challenge.
His final karting season brought second place in the Rotax Max Senior Euro Challenge, and he took part in selected rounds of the WSK Champions Cup and the KF2 European Championship. He made his only appearance in the Karting World Championship with Ricky Flynn Motorsport, sharing the team with Lando Norris and Jehan Daruvala.
The first Chinese driver on a Formula One grid, who built a championship-winning junior career and then found the grid harder to hold.
What did Zhou win in the junior formulae?
Zhou joined Prema Powerteam for the 2015 Italian F4 Championship. He won all three races in round two at Monza, and he ended the season as vice-champion and best rookie. He also finished on the podium twice in the German ADAC F4 at Spielberg and Spa.
He moved to Motopark for the 2016 FIA Formula 3 European Championship and took two podiums in the opening rounds at Paul Ricard and the Hungaroring. He faded in the second half of the season and finished 13th for his first campaign. He returned to Prema in 2017 and was eighth in the standings with five podiums, leading race 3 at Spa along the way.
His third Formula 3 season was his most successful. He won his first career race at Pau, took three consecutive podiums at Zandvoort and won again at Hockenheim. He finished eighth in the standings once more, with three poles and two wins.
How did Zhou's Formula 2 career develop?
Zhou joined UNI-Virtuosi Racing for the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, alongside Luca Ghiotto. He took his first Formula 2 pole at Silverstone, becoming the first Chinese driver to do so, and he finished seventh overall. That season earned him the Anthoine Hubert Award as the highest-finishing rookie.
In 2020 he took a second pole at the Red Bull Ring and his first Formula 2 race win at Sochi, after a collision ahead of him left the sprint race in disarray. He finished the season sixth with six podiums. He stayed with UNI-Virtuosi for 2021 and partnered Felipe Drugovich.
The 2021 season was his strongest in the category. He won the feature race at Bahrain from pole, took the first sprint at Monaco ahead of Drugovich, and broke a run of four points-free races with a feature win at Silverstone. Oscar Piastri, who entered the penultimate round with a 36-point advantage, was the rival he finished behind in the final standings.
Zhou ended the season third in the championship with four wins, one pole and nine podiums. He closed his Formula 2 career at Abu Dhabi with a win in the second sprint race and second place in the feature.
How did Zhou win the Formula 3 Asian title?
During the winter break before the 2021 Formula 2 season, Zhou raced in the F3 Asian Championship for Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema. He won the title with four wins, five poles and 11 podiums. The result showed that his speed carried over to a different category during a demanding stretch of the year.
What did the academy years involve?
Zhou joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2014 while still karting, and he left the programme at the end of 2018. He then moved to the Renault Sport Academy and served as a development driver for the Renault Formula One team in 2019. In 2019 he tested a Renault car at five different circuits during the year.
He was promoted to test driver for Renault in 2020. That year he also won the first race of the Virtual Grand Prix Series, an esports competition run by Formula One in place of cancelled races, at the Bahrain International Circuit. Once the real season resumed, he tested the Renault car on several occasions, including a post-season test at Yas Marina alongside Fernando Alonso.
He remained part of the Alpine Academy in 2021. Before the 2022 season he had also worked with Techeetah as a development driver in Formula E during 2017 and 2018, which gave him experience of a different single-seater series.
How did Zhou make his first Formula One appearance?
Zhou made his Formula One race weekend debut for Alpine in 2021, driving the Alpine car in the first practice session of the Austrian Grand Prix. That made him the second driver from mainland China to take part in a Grand Prix weekend session, after Ma Qinghua.
What was the 2022 season like at Alfa Romeo?
Zhou signed a three-year contract with Alfa Romeo for 2022 to partner Valtteri Bottas, and he became China's first Formula One race driver. He qualified 15th at Bahrain and recovered from a poor start to finish tenth, scoring his first point on debut.
He chose the number 24 as a tribute to Kobe Bryant, whose number he had worn in basketball with the Los Angeles Lakers. Seven races without points followed, including a collision with Pierre Gasly at Emilia Romagna and mechanical retirements at Miami and Spain.
Canada brought the first real highlight. Zhou reached the third qualifying session for the first time and finished eighth, scoring points for the second time. At the British Grand Prix, however, a high-speed collision with George Russell on the opening lap flipped his car over and sent it into the catch fence. He was taken to the medical centre and later declared fit, and he has credited the halo with saving his life.
More mechanical trouble followed in Austria and France, but he added a tenth place at Monza, which finished behind the safety car. At Japan he finished sixteenth in a race shortened by rain, and a late pit stop for new tyres gave him the fastest lap of his career.
What were Zhou's 2023 highlights?
Zhou stayed with Alfa Romeo for 2023. He set the fastest lap of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, at 1:31.610. He claimed his first points of the year with ninth in Australia, then added ninth in Spain and ninth in Qatar, a race where he started last.
His best qualifying result came at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where he set the fastest first-session time and qualified fifth. A slow start and a collision at the first corner cost him, and he finished sixteenth.
| Season | Team | Championship | Notable results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Alfa Romeo | Eighteenth, six points | Tenth at Bahrain, eighth at Canada, tenth at Monza |
| 2023 | Alfa Romeo | Eighteenth, six points | Ninth at Australia, Spain and Qatar; fifth on the grid at Hungary |
| 2024 | Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber | Points at Qatar, Sauber's only points of the year | Eleventh at Bahrain, 14th at China, eighth at Qatar |
At the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix he qualified 13th and finished 16th. He made a late stop for soft tyres on the penultimate lap to take the fastest lap of the race, and Alfa Romeo later explained that the stop was made to deny rivals Alpine and Pierre Gasly the bonus point.
Teammate Valtteri Bottas scored ten points in 2023 and out-qualified Zhou at fifteen of the twenty-two races. Autosport credited Zhou with holding his own against the experienced Finn, while identifying qualifying as an area he needed to improve. RaceFans described his 2023 performance as professional if unspectacular.
The Dutch Grand Prix offered a brief moment of promise. A call for intermediate tyres after the first lap moved him up to second, but he dropped out of the top ten and later crashed when the rain returned. At Mexico City he reached Q3 but could not hold off the cars behind, and at Sao Paulo he qualified last and retired with engine trouble.
How did 2024 go at Sauber?
Zhou stayed with the team for 2024, which rebranded as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber to reflect its new sponsors. He finished 14th at the Chinese Grand Prix in his first home race, and at Qatar he took eighth after two safety car periods, the team's only points that season.
The season started well when he climbed from 17th to 11th in Bahrain. He crashed in the final practice session in Saudi Arabia, and the team could not repair his car in time for a qualifying lap, so he finished last of the running cars. In Australia he started from the pit lane after a front wing change, because the team had not brought spares of the current design.
He finished 16th at Monaco after a three-car collision ahead of him, and he was classified last among the finishers at Silverstone after the early retirements of others. At Qatar he was voted Driver of the Day after his eighth-place finish.
He also finished ahead of Valtteri Bottas at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where a high-speed collision between Carlos Sainz Jr. and Sergio Perez on lap 50 neutralised the race and left Bottas 16th.
What is Zhou doing now?
Zhou joined Ferrari as a reserve driver for the 2025 season. Ferrari did not keep him in that job for 2026, a decision made known at the turn of the year. In January 2026 Cadillac confirmed that he would join as a reserve driver for its maiden season in Formula One.
What does Zhou's career mean for Chinese motorsport?
Zhou has described his arrival in Formula One as a breakthrough for Chinese motorsport history. He is the only Chinese driver to have competed in the championship to date, a distinction that gives his career a significance beyond his results.
.jpg){kind=link}