Formula One: Chinese Grand Prix is ‘opportunity to inspire’ for Zhou Guanyu as race returns to Shanghai
- Having made his way in motorsport largely on his own, Zhou relishes a chance to ‘pave the path for future generations’
- ‘I can’t wait to give it my all … and start a new chapter of Chinese motorsport together with the crowd,’ he says
The road to becoming China’s first fully fledged Formula One driver was a lonely one that required endurance and self-discipline, Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu said ahead of his first grand prix race in his hometown of Shanghai.
But the 24-year-old said that the prospect of taking to the circuit filled him with “immense joy, pride and responsibility”.
F1 will this weekend return to the country for the first time since 2019, and Zhou said that the next few days would be not just a race but an opportunity to “write history”.
Zhou has already done precisely that by dint of signing for Alfa Romeo in 2021, and after the absences caused by China’s strict Covid-19 restrictions, he said his country had been “waiting for this moment for years”.
“It’s an opportunity to inspire and pave the path for future generations being interested in the sport,” he said. “We saw the passion that awaits us when the tickets went on sale, and were fully sold out within hours.”
Talking to reporters after a screening of a documentary about his career, Zhou described his journey to joining motorsport’s elite as a difficult one, pointing to the lack of support available to up-and-coming drivers in China.