Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu made history by becoming China’s first Formula 1 driver upon debuting at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix. Now in his third season, Zhou has a fight on his hands to retain his place in F1 amid his toughest campaign to date thanks to an uncompetitive Sauber machine. Motorsport Week spoke exclusively with China’s F1 hero ahead of the most recent British Grand Prix at Silverstone to discuss his journey to date and why he feels he has so much more to give to the sport.
The remarkable nature of modern F1 is the sheer mass of races. The length of the calendar not only this year (24), but the recent years gone by means that Zhou, only part way through his third season of F1 has already ticked off a half-century of Grand Prix appearances. F1 is such that a driver has more single-seater track time year-on-year than any other stage up the junior ladder, so it should come as no surprise that Zhou sees himself as a completely different driver to the one that picked up a point on his GP debut in Bahrain two and a half years ago.
“I’ve improved a lot of all-around skills,” he said. “Not just driving, also communication with the team and also managing myself under tough or challenging circumstances. I think it’s a lot better and I don’t feel so nervous anymore compared to how I was in 2022. I always feel a bit more naturally into my system. So yeah, I’m just grateful with the times I had. Of course it had a lot of ups and downs, but I’m just grateful to be on this grid to continue to perform.”
Zhou, of course, has not just being an F1 driver to be grateful for, but perhaps one of the most emotional home Grand Prix debuts in recent memory. F1’s long-awaited return to China after a five-year absence thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic saw Zhou receive a rapturous homecoming. The 2024 Chinese GP at the Shanghai International Circuit came after cancellations in 2022 and 2023. Zhou describes the extended wait to make his F1 debut in front of a home crowd “a tough moment”.
Zhou recalls watching from the stands during the series’ first-ever visit to Shanghai in 2004, making his debut there all the more poignant. Zhou was met with a packed Shanghai crowd most keen to see him and after a spirited drive with some punchy overtakes rewarded him with 14th place in April’s Chinese GP (no mean feat in this year’s Sauber) and a special finishing berth on the start/finish straight to take in the adoration of the attending fans, with tears in his eyes.
“My ultimate dream was to be in F1,” said Zhou. “The second dream was to race at home and finally to complete that I’ve just been really grateful. Racing at a home race means everything to me because it’s the race that made me have this F1 dream that I wanted to chase for and I was there for the first Grand Prix. 20 years later you’re there as a driver and I don’t think there’s any better story than that. So from my side, I’m just really honoured to be representing a whole country.
“You see the crowd, it had never been like that in Shanghai or any other places you know it’s the warm welcome, the reception, the cheer I received the whole weekend it’s just incredible I’ve never felt something like that.”
Helping steward Zhou through his development as a F1 driver, to understand the pressures and commitment required, is his Sauber team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Bottas has been a part of Zhou’s F1 journey since day one and from the outside looking in, it’s a partnership that has appeared constantly harmonious. Zhou concurs with that statement and it’s no wonder, for both he and the mullet-wearing Finn are free of ego and prefer to race for the benefit of their team.
“Honestly, I’ve just been really grateful to have had him for a long period of my career,” Zhou said of his Sauber team-mate. “Obviously me and Valtteri have a really great relationship together in terms of respecting each other, trusting each other, sacrificing sometimes our races for the other just because we are not always in the certain standard we can fight both cars in the points. So we always let each other past and we know if he couldn’t make the position, he will give my position back. So it’s very fair, like what we play in the team. And that comes with a lot of trust.
“So he’s been really supportive and also being very humble, helping me as a rookie since my first year and that’s great to have because you don’t want to be a rookie that have an experienced driver wanting to absolutely destroy you. I think sometimes what you do with a team is you try to hide from things because you want to destroy them at the same time but that’s not the case in Sauber.”
Bottas and Zhou have had to contend with a team amid a radical transformation. Just a year into his Grand Prix career, Sauber was chosen as the vessel for German marque Audi’s first foray into F1. Audi is set to complete a 100% takeover of the Hinwil-based outfit ahead of its 2026 debut and movement has already occurred.
Andreas Seidl was appointed CEO in 2023 to help transform Sauber into an entity capable of hitting the ground running as a fully-fledged works outfit and work is well underway in German on the bespoke Audi power unit. Regardless of whether he will drive in Audi colours or not, Zhou is a part of the Audi F1 story. While the changes now and ahead are admittedly “exciting,” Zhou acknowledged that Sauber has to focus on its duties in the present and understand that sacrifices may be needed in the short-term to benefit the long-term vision of Audi.
“It’s probably more behind the scenes in the factory side, and people operation-wise that is changing a lot,” he said. “But for me, we’re trying to really focus on individual weekends, trying to get the performance out of the car. And then, of course, the rest is up to Andreas [Seidl], he is looking after the people and making sure he wants to get the team prepared for Audi. So it’s exciting for us, I think for the employers and race team members, because we know once we became an Audi team, it’s going to be a lot more financial. And [Audi] knows we are fighting for points and they want to be fighting for podiums. But firstly, I think there’s two years that we need to sacrifice a little bit, and this year is probably one of the years that It’s not been easy because while you’re moving things around, you know, it’s getting a little bit delayed and postponed.”
2024 has definitely been a year of sacrifice. Sauber started out as a team on the fringes of scoring points, but any chances were marred by sluggish pit-stops, costing any chances of scoring. With the pit-stop issues rectified, a lack of performance and an inability to keep up a rate of development akin to its rivals has seen Sauber slide to the very bottom of the F1 pecking order. With Zhou’s future still up in the air, an uncompetitive car is the last thing he needs to prove to potential employers he has what it takes to continue in F1.
“It’s definitely the most challenging year [of my career],” he said. “It’s always mixed feeling like frustration and also of course a little bit of difficulty that I have to face just because it’s a very important year that you finalise your future. Obviously, there’s a lot more to know about the performance in the car and this year we are missing something right now, but at the beginning of the year we had a good car but we had a problem with the pit stops so in fairness both ways we couldn’t get any points which is frustrating for everyone in the team. We are likely to hopefully make our way forward on that and it’s not been an easy couple of weeks or months for us as a group just because I wanted to show what I can do, but it’s difficult under these issues.”
When a team is down on its luck, togetherness is vital, and Zhou has found support from all corners of the Sauber operation. This was evident when he chose to revert back to his pre-Imola spec chassis following a disastrous weekend in Montreal.
“[In] Montreal, I’ve never seen myself doing so many mistakes, like very weirdly, you know, I wasn’t able to control my car for the first time in my career in F1,” Zhou said. Zhou’s decision to revert his car to an older spec was met with the full backing of his team, which he admitted was “really great to have. I think if wanted to do that in [my] first year, it [would’ve been] a no, you know. It shows you, I think the confidence or the belief that they have, because I think the driver is the guy who can feel the most efficient what the car is doing.”
Still, backing amid troubled times aside, having an underperforming car isn’t what Zhou needs in 2024. With Ollie Bearman confirmed at Haas for 2025, at least one driver on the grid will lose their seat at the end of the year. And with the likes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Liam Lawson linked to 2025 drives, more of the current grid could be forced to make way. You’d be forgiven for thinking that such pressure on one’s future could interfere with a race weekend preparation, but Zhou has been able to cast it aside.
“I think you just put it on one side just because there’s nothing much you can really change,” he said. “With your future I think all you can do is to deliver results on track and focus on what you are doing, which is get the most out of the car. And then in general nothing really changed just because I feel like I think everyone knows how much difficulties we are facing as a team but for the drivers you want to show where you can do the best and also you want to show that you are making progress. That’s the most important thing to show.”
A Q2 appearance last time out at Silverstone marked Zhou’s best qualifying of the year so far, proving there’s fight in him to retain a seat for 2025. However, he is resigned to waiting on the likes of Carlos Sainz, Esteban Ocon and Bottas to make decisions on their futures before finding his own. Whatever the outcome Zhou faces, he’s determined to extend his stay in Formula 1, adamant that there’s plenty left in the tank.
“It’s always the target of course to stay here,” he said. “I don’t know, once you feel like you want to do something else or you’re not motivated, but at the moment I’m still very motivated, I’ve got energy to compete more and more, for years, that’s for sure, under my belt. And so I just need to see what the future brings really, but at the moment I just love to be here, I love driving these cars, and also Formula 1, there’s no better place to be for a racing driver.”
