Zhou and Valterri Bottas were brought in by Alfa Romeo to replace F1 legend and former world champion Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi.
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The 2022 Formula One season has quite a number of new additions, the most significant one being the technical regulations that have heavily impacted the racing and teams for the season. The season also saw a new driver on the grid. 22-year-old Guanyu Zhou became the first ever Chinese driver in Formula One and he made his debut with Alfa Romeo that season. Zhou and Valterri Bottas were brought in by Alfa Romeo to replace F1 legend and former world champion Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi. So far, Zhou has had a decent season as a rookie in a car that is not exactly very competitive. Zhou’s exploits before his F1 debut speaks volumes about his racing craft and mentality and he has shown that in the top tier of the sport as well when he scored points in his very first race.
Zhou began karting at the age of eight in China and relocated to Sheffield in 2012 in search of a more competitive racing environment. Zhou was placed second in the Rotax Max Senior Euro Challenge in his final year of karting and competed in WSK Champions Cup and KF2 European Championship rounds. He also drove for Ricky Flynn Motorsport alongside Lando Norris in the Karting World Championship for the first and only time. For the 2015 Italian F4 Championship, Zhou joined Prema Powerteam. Zhou finished the season as vice-champion and best rookie after winning all three races in Round 2 at Monza and routinely placed on the podium.
In December 2018, Zhou and Luca Ghiotto joined UNI-Virtuosi Racing for the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship. He finished sixth in the championship and was given the Anthoine Hubert Award for being the best rookie finisher. Zhou won his maiden Formula 2 race at Sochi in 2020, after Aitken and Ghiotto collided on lap 5 of the sprint race, forcing the race to be stopped early. Zhou concluded the season with six podiums and sixth place in the championship. In 2021, Zhou finished his F2 career with a win in the second sprint race and a second-place finish in the feature race. He finished third in the championship with four victories, one pole, and nine podiums.
While still karting, he joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in mid-2014. He stayed till the end of 2018 with the Ferrari Driver Academy. He joined the Renault Sport Academy in 2019 and began working as a development driver for the Renault Formula One Team. Zhou was promoted to Renault Formula One Team Test Driver in 2020. Zhou secured a contract with Alfa Romeo for the 2022 Formula One season, joining Valtteri Bottas as China’s first full-time Formula One driver.
Zhou remarked in a press release issued shortly after the news that he was fully equipped for the tremendous challenge of Formula One and that his entry into the series will be a watershed moment in Chinese motorsport history. Zhou qualified 15th for his debut in Bahrain, but recovered from a poor start to finish 10th and earn a point. To honour his sporting hero Kobe Bryant, Zhou chose the number 24 as his permanent racing number.
| Races | 4 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Poles | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Points | 1 |
| World Championships | 0 |
Zhou’s net worth is estimated to be between USD 1 and USD 5 million, according to several estimates, given that he has been making a good sum of money by participating in Formula 2 for the previous three years. However, with his advent in Formula 1, the numbers will skyrocket in the following years. Meanwhile, his father is said to be affluent and may have had a significant part in Zhou’s purchase of an Alfa Romeo F1 seat. As a result, Zhou, like Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi, will be a paid driver in the season. When it comes to his love life, the Chinese driver is not dating anyone at the moment.
