Last week, a few days after the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the Sauber team thanked Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou for their cooperation and announced their impending separation from both.
Zhou then promised: “I will continue to consider various options that would allow me to remain in the Formula 1 paddock, and will share new information soon.”
There has been no news from him since, but there is speculation in the Italian Corriere della Sera that he may become Ferrari’s reserve driver. Of course, this is nothing more than a version that the newspaper does not insist on or even refer to sources; she only writes that this is “expected” and recalls this in the period from 2014 to 2018. Zhou was a student at the Ferrari Racing Academy.
The text, dedicated to the first Chinese Formula 1 driver and the possible next chapter of his career, contains the following phrase: “The past sometimes returns as the future approaches.”
Only time will really tell whether the rumors about Zhou’s possible collaboration with Ferrari as a reserve driver will be confirmed, but theoretically such a version could be supported by the fact that the Italian team knows him somehow.
In addition, Sauber uses power units built in Maranello and specialists from Maranello work in constant contact with colleagues from Hinvil. Of course, this was already the case when Ferrari was managed by Mattia Binotto, who now heads Audi’s Formula 1 factory programme, and he may well have put in a good word for Zhou.
Binotto knows exactly what is causing Sauber’s poor results this season – it is unlikely that all responsibility for this should be placed on the drivers.
And the Scuderia will need a reserve driver, because now these duties are fulfilled by Oliver Berman, who will drive for Haas F1 next year, and it makes more sense to entrust this vacancy to a driver with experience of almost seventy Grand Prix.
Zhou drives a car that suits him, and with the right combination of circumstances he can do a good job. Just remember that he opened his points account in his debut race and finished in the top ten in Bahrain in 2022. In the same season he showed his best result so far: it was an 8th place in the race on such a fast circuit as the Montreal Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
