Formula 2 championship leader Guanyu Zhou will make his first appearance in an official Formula 1 practice session at this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.
The Alpine junior driver will run in the first practice session at the Red Bull Ring, in place of Fernando Alonso. He has previously driven for the team in public and private F1 tests.Zhou, 22, is in his third season of competing in F2 and has scored two victories for his Virtuosi team over the opening nine rounds. He also won the Asian F3 championship earlier this year.
He will be the second Chinese driver in the sport’s history to participate in an official race weekend. Ma Qinghua previously appeared in five practice sessions for HRT and Caterham in 2012 and 2013.
Zhou said the news was “like a dream coming true and another step closer to my ultimate goal of becoming a Formula 1 driver.”
“It’s going to be even more special that I’m driving Fernando’s car as he inspired me to pursue a career in racing when I was young. I’m very happy with my achievements so far and I’m very thankful for the support I have from those around me.”
Alpine’s chief executive officer Laurent Rossi said the test is “a logical and important step for one of the Academy’s brightest stars.
“This experience will greatly help him as he makes very solid progress towards the ultimate target that constitutes a full-time F1 seat.”
“The challenge for young drivers to get into F1 is incredibly hard, and we are proud to support upcoming talent on this road,” Rossi added.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2021 F1 season
- Las Vegas race backers looking to extend F1 deal beyond 2025
- Why Mercedes put ‘a reminder of joy and pain’ on display in their factory lobby
- Verdict on error in GT race suggests Mercedes would have lost 2021 Abu Dhabi GP appeal
- Title ‘stolen’ from Mercedes made us ‘underdogs people cheer for’ – Wolff
- Red Bull Racing spent £230m during Verstappen’s title-winning 2021 campaign
Jere (@jerejj)
28th June 2021, 11:37
Surprising, given Alpine/Renault have never really run drivers other than regulars in an FP1. The same applies to most teams, though. Mostly only smaller ones further down the field have done so for a while.
Minardi (@gitanes)
28th June 2021, 13:28
I guess they determined FP wasn’t so critical for the regular drivers for the second part of a doubleheader.
But Zhou has had a sort of mediocre season this far – not much raw speed. Lucked into reverse grid victory in Monaco cause he only qualified 10th. How stupid F2 is this year.
F1.Fan (@f1-fan)
28th June 2021, 13:50
@gitanes Last year Zhou was the most aggressive driver on the grid. Perhaps this year he has another approach so he can get the championship? I think so.
Minardi (@gitanes)
28th June 2021, 15:04
If he wins it, I’ll give him credit then. But I’d say it’s not likely at this point.
Dave
29th June 2021, 9:30
Is that because of the new format and the F3 divorce?
Dr. Basado (@arcada)
28th June 2021, 15:35
Alpine have a lot of talented young racers in their driver academy, but it looks like there’ll be no open seats at Alpine for the medium-long term future (unless Alonso calls it quits next year).
Even if a seat does become available, you’d assume they’d try to hire a GP-winning Frenchman in the form of Pierre Gasly.
I don’t really see where Zhou, Christian Lundgaard, Oscar Piastri, and Victor Martins will fit into Alpine’s plans.
CC78AMG
29th June 2021, 8:32
I think he should be loaned to another F1 team. Maybe Williams? He could try to outbid Latifi for that seat.