F1 Racer Zhou Guanyu of Kick Sauber: We Don’t Need Massive Changes

When it comes to occupations, the probability of becoming a Formula 1 racer may be slightly better than walking on the moon, but it’s still a moonshot. Now imagine being the first one to do so from a superpower populated by more than 1.4 billion people. That’s just what 25-year-old Zhou Guanyu accomplished when he lined up on the starting grid at Formula 1’s 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix as a rookie with Alfa Romeo, finishing in the top ten that day and earning a coveted point for the team.

Guanyu ranked 18th overall at the end of that season, a position he replicated  last year. Now, with the premiere motorsport series just past the halfway point of a 24-race schedule—the longest in its history—Guanyu and 34-year-old teammate Valtteri Bottas find themselves in last place as a team under the Kick Sauber banner, and yet to score a point. Adding to the drama is the fact that racer Nico Hulkenberg is joining the squad in 2025, placing the futures of the current Kick Sauber drivers in question.

Yet it’s the ability to tune out distraction and maintain myopic focus that help define the world’s top drivers, of which Guanyu has certainly proved himself to be. A few days prior to Formula 1’s summer break, he shared with us his optimistic mindset going into the latter part of the season, his relationship with his teammate, and his message to aspiring young racers in his homeland and beyond.

It’s been a tough road so far for Kick Sauber, are you seeing reasons to be optimistic about the remainder of the season?

At the beginning of the year, we had some obvious pit-stop issues but the car was performing well . . . but then we couldn’t really convert that into a top 10 finish on Sunday. The recent few weekends, I think we’ve lacked a bit of performance, but we’re waiting for our next major upgrades. We don’t need massive changes, this year the grid is super tight.

As a driver, of course, what matters most is what’s on paper, you want the results, but there are several things that sometimes don’t go your way—that’s what we’re facing this season. But things are getting cleared up very soon and I hope we have a season that can turnaround after summer shutdown. We’ve been getting back there the last few race weekends and I see something very promising.

How do you and Valtteri Bottas balance being both competitors and teammates?

It’s not because we just care so much about the team, our working well together shows the respect we have for each other. We try to prioritize the leading car to have more opportunities. Normally, F1 is where you have the toughest teammate, who is also your biggest rival, but since year one, Valtteri has been so transparent and doesn’t play games inside the team. Let’s say I do a position swap with him on track, I know that he will give it back if he can’t succeed, and he’ll do the same on another weekend if I’m in a similar situation. That’s how  it works, it’s what we’ve shown each other, which gives us a very high level of trust.

How do you decompress during the summer break?

The last two years I haven’t really had a proper chance to fully switch off because there were a lot of partner and sponsorship events that I would do while other drivers were having a full vacation, which impacts your performance for the second half of the season. That’s something we talked about as a team, and this year we are doing a completely different approach. We’re trying to have one-and-a-half weeks where I’m not involved with any activities, which is very good for mental health. With 24 races, it’s impossible to be 100 percent focused every weekend if you’re still doing business on your summer holiday.  I’ll be heading back to my hometown and hopefully come back very refreshed.

How does the length of this season change your approach to recovery and your overall fitness schedule?

Because we have so many back-to-back races, normally Monday is for recovery—perhaps a treatment—and Tuesday you’re back in the gym, but usually for an easy or medium recovery workout. You don’t want to go too hard because you don’t have time for your muscles to recover. It’s a tough balance, but you’re a lot fitter than when you have less races because driving is the best exercise for all of your muscle memory, and I don’t mind that.

Which circuit on the schedule this year is your favorite?

Silverstone. I had never raced in Silverstone before F3, and it’s definitely the top of the list. Then both Shanghai and Hungaroring are close for second.

How old were you when you realized you wanted to be in motorsport, and what was your path to Formula 1.

My family was not a motorsport family, there was no racing background. I was six years old when we had the first Chinese Grand Prix  in 2004. Before that, I was already a massive fan of cars but didn’t know much about motorsport or Formula 1. But then I went to Shanghai for the first grand prix, and it just made me have a lot of goosebumps. I wanted to do that in the future, to be one of the world’s 20 fastest drivers—that quickly became my full-time dream. When I was eight years old, I began racing go karts and it started from there.

Are you now seeing an increase in motorsport’s popularity in China, and is there growing infrastructure to foster talented young drivers?

For sure. The [Chinese] Grand Prix this year was crazy—the audience and popularity. It completely sold out in like 20 minutes. I’m obviously proud and honored to be the person to make that change, and also grateful to see that it’s not just original fans but a lot of the younger generation that started following motorsport because of me, and who are really interested in getting involved, going to open track days themselves. While I reach my dream, I want to be sure that there are more of the younger generation and more [Chinese] manufacturing involved in Formula 1.

How do you handle the pressure and expectations of a nation that had never been represented in Formula 1 before you?

I’ve had this pressure for several years. When I was in Formula 2, there was a lot of talk about me being the only hope in the recent five or ten years, and ‘is he going to make it?’” It was quite tough for me to balance, because as much as that was the hope of people in my country, it also was my dream. I wanted to be there as much as they wanted to see a Chinese driver on the grid.

But once I arrived for my first season [in Formula 1], I didn’t want to be there just so people could think, ‘oh, there’s the first Chinese driver,’ I wanted them to think that I could compete against the best drivers, against the people that I actually grew up watching, like Fernando [Alonso] and Sebastian Vettel. So, a lot of pressure on my shoulders, especially the first home race I did this year, but I think I can handle it quite well because it was there before I stepped into Formula 1.

What was it like to race with some of your childhood heroes for the first time?

Growing up, I had posters of Fernando on my wall—my world was F1 and Fernando, basically. And then I got the chance to not just race with him but to work closely with him, stepping into his car for my first practice-session appearance—it was very emotional. Now, everything just feels quite natural.

Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?

If I’m realistic, I don’t think I will still be driving in Formula 1. As much as I’d love to, I think that in Formula 1 now, for the drivers’ health, everything is getting very extreme. And everything is also changing so much, you don’t know where you’ll end up. But I think I’ll definitely be involved with motorsport, whether it’s Formula 1 or something else. I feel like a lot of my dream has been achieved, but I just want to make sure that I can compete and fight for podiums and the top step, because that’s what I love to do. Ten years is so far away.

What career would you have pursued if you did not get involved with racing.

Fashion designer. I think its unique in that every year you have a different way of styling and designing your brand. I love to be creative—I love to design my helmet, which is the only thing you can design in F1. Of course, racing is my priority at the moment, but fashion is something I will definitely get into when I’m not racing anymore.

Your draw to fashion is reflected in a certain item you collect. Care to share?

I just love sneakers. You know you are a collector when 40 percent of the shoes have never been worn. I look at it as not just a sneaker but as an art piece. All of them sitting on wall shelves at home—it’s beautiful to see.

What advice would you give aspiring young racers?

First, that it takes a lot of sacrifice and work behind the scenes that people don’t see. Then, mistakes make you learn a lot quicker than success. The painful moments make you a better person in anything you do.