Zhou was inspired early in his career by Fernando Alonso

Guanyu Zhou became the first Chinese Formula 1 driver to start a race and score points. In the Beyond The Grid podcast, the Alfa Romeo driver said Fernando Alonso had a big influence on his professional qualities.

“I’m a unique person in a way, so I’m not really interested in someone who is supported by the majority,” Guanyu Zhou said. – Michael Schumacher was a legend for everyone, many supported him, especially in China. In my youth Fernando Alonso fought with Michael on the track and it was very difficult for him. It made a strong impression on me – you have to be a very good driver to be ahead of Michael.

I started following Fernando’s career, I saw his championship potential. When I was karting, I wanted to be like Fernando. He was very aggressive on the track, he had a great start and drove the first lap, I loved all the tricks he did in Formula 1. I looked at all this and thought, “I want to root for him!”

I experienced strange feelings when I was on the same team in Formula 1 with Fernando. I took private tests and he came to help. Last year I took part in the Grand Prix for the first time – I got behind the wheel during the first practice in Austria with Fernando’s car! It was a special moment – I never even dreamed that this would ever be possible.

Now I race against him because Alpine is one of our team’s rivals. In the first race in Bahrain it was unusual to hear from the engineer on the radio that Fernando was ahead of me and we were fighting for points.

Now everything has changed. When I got behind the wheel in the first training session it was unusual for me to go to the same track with legends like Alonso, Hamilton, Verstappen … Now Fernando for me is one of the rivals, but still it is somewhat unusual to fight a driver for whom I was sick as a child.”