Guanyu Zhou

Guanyu Zhou, native form as Zhou Guan Yu (周冠宇 born 30 May 1999) is a Chinese racing driver, currently competing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship for UNI-Virtuosi Racing. As part of the Renault Sport Academy, he currently serves as the test driver for the Renault Formula One Team. He was a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy from 2015 to 2018, and served as the development driver for Formula E team DS Techeetah in 2018.[2][3][4]

The native form of this personal name is Zhou Guanyu. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Guanyu Zhou
Zhou in 2019
Nationality Chinese
Born (1999-05-30) 30 May 1999
Shanghai, China
FIA Formula 2 Championship career
Debut season2019
Current teamUNI-Virtuosi
Car number3
Starts34 (36 entries)
Wins0
Podiums8
Poles2[lower-alpha 1]
Fastest laps5
Best finish7th in 2019
Previous series
2016–18
2016
2015
2015		FIA European Formula 3
Toyota Racing Series
Italian F4 Championship
ADAC Formula 4
Zhou on Grid of ADAC F4 in Spa

Zhou started his single seater career in 2015, competing in the Italian F4 Championship and ADAC Formula 4 with Prema Racing. After finding success in the Italian F4 Championship, he moved up to the European Formula 3 Championship with Motopark in 2016[5] and Prema Racing in 2017 and 2018.[6]

Career

Karting

Having started karting when he was eight years old in China, Zhou moved to the UK in 2012 for a more competitive racing environment. In 2013, he won both the Super 1 National Rotax Max Junior and Rotax Max Euro Challenge, beating current McLaren driver Lando Norris. For his final year of karting, Zhou finished 2nd in Rotax Max Senior Euro Challenge and participated in selected rounds of WSK Champions Cup and the KF2 European Championship.[7]

Formula 4

Zhou joined Prema Powerteam for the 2015 Italian F4 Championship. After winning a hat trick in round 2 Monza and consistently finishing on the podium, Zhou ended the season as vice-champion and best rookie, beating highly rated Robert Schwartzman and David Beckmann. He also competed in selected rounds of the German ADAC F4 Championship, achieving two podium finishes in Spielberg and Spa.

FIA Formula 3 European Championship

Zhou joined team Motopark for the 2016 FIA European F3 Championship. After a successful season opener rounds in Paul Ricard and Hungaroring by finishing in 2 podium positions, Zhou struggled to find pace during the 2nd half of the season, finishing in 13th for his maiden season.

Zhou stayed for a second F3 season by rejoining Prema, and improved to 8th in standing with 5 podium finishes. Season highlights included leading race 3 in Spa and holding back Lando Norris in the penultimate round.

After a speculation of a possible move to F2, Zhou remained with Prema for a third F3 season. After a maiden career win in Pau, a podium in Hungaroring and three consecutive podium finishes in Zandvoort, Zhou found him standing in 2nd, just a point behind teammate Marcus Armstrong. Despite strong qualifying pace in Spa and Silverstone, Zhou suffered 4 consecutive retirements with a series of teammate collisions and tyre punctures. Zhou won his second F3 race in Hockenheim, finishing the season 8th in standing, with 3 poles, and 2 wins.

FIA Formula 2

In December 2018, Zhou joined UNI-Virtuosi Racing along with Luca Ghiotto for the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship. [8] Zhou achieved a maiden feature race podium in Barcelona after a strong qualifying and leading most of the race before dropping to third due to tyre degradation. He subsequently achieved another 3rd in the Monaco sprint race by overtaking Artem Markelov at the start. At Silverstone, Zhou scored his first Formula 2 pole position, becoming the first Chinese driver to do so. Later, Zhou also scored third place in the sprint race at Paul Ricard. In the feature race at Silverstone, he lost positions to his teammate and race winner Luca Ghiotto and to the second place driver Nicholas Latifi. In Abu Dhabi, he also finished third with fastest lap in Race 1. He finished seventh in the championship and was subsequently awarded the Anthoine Hubert Award for being the highest-finishing rookie.

Zhou remained at UNI-Virtuosi for the 2020 season, partnering Ferrari Driver Academy member Callum Ilott. Zhou took his second Formula 2 pole position at the opening race at the Red Bull Ring.[9] However, his car suffered electronic problems whilst leading the feature race, causing him to drop to 17th.[10]

Formula One

In mid 2014, he joined the Ferrari Driver Academy while still karting.[11] He stayed in the Ferrari Driver Academy until the end of 2018. In 2019, he joined the Renault Sport Academy and served as a development driver for the Renault Formula One Team.[12] In 2020, Zhou was promoted to Test Driver for the Renault Formula One Team.[13]

He also participated in the Virtual Grand Prix Series for Renault, an FIA launched Esports series in place of the F1 Grands Prix postponed or cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. He won the Bahrain Virtual Grand Prix, the first Virtual GP of the replacement series.[14] However, this series does not award any points to the Formula 1 World Championship.

Racing record

Career summary
Season Series Team Races Wins Poles FLaps Podiums Points Position
2015 Italian F4 Championship Prema Powerteam 21 3 2 0 9 223 2nd
ADAC Formula 4 Championship 9 0 0 0 2 45 15th
2016 FIA Formula 3 European Championship Motopark 30 0 0 0 2 101 13th
Masters of Formula 3 1 0 0 1 0 N/A 16th
Macau Grand Prix 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 15th
Toyota Racing Series M2 Competition 15 1 0 1 4 685 6th
2017 FIA Formula 3 European Championship Prema Powerteam 30 0 0 0 5 149 8th
Macau Grand Prix 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 8th
2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship Prema Theodore Racing 30 2 3 1 6 203 8th
Macau Grand Prix SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 11th
2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship UNI-Virtuosi Racing 22 0 1 2 5 140 7th
2020 Formula One Renault DP World F1 Team Test driver
FIA Formula 2 Championship UNI-Virtuosi Racing 12 1 3 3 76* 6th*

* Season still in progress.

Complete FIA Formula 3 European Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 DC Points
2016 Motopark Volkswagen LEC
1
14		 LEC
2
3		 LEC
3
8		 HUN
1
8		 HUN
2
3		 HUN
3
4		 PAU
1
11		 PAU
2
Ret		 PAU
3
Ret		 RBR
1
14		 RBR
2
11		 RBR
3
7		 NOR
1
Ret		 NOR
2
6		 NOR
3
4		 ZAN
1
16		 ZAN
2
18		 ZAN
3
16		 SPA
1
17		 SPA
2
8		 SPA
3
11		 NÜR
1
12		 NÜR
2
12		 NÜR
3
12		 IMO
1
6		 IMO
2
5		 IMO
3
10		 HOC
1
11		 HOC
2
13		 HOC
3
11		 13th 101
2017 Prema Powerteam Mercedes SIL
1
7		 SIL
2
7		 SIL
3
Ret		 MNZ
1
5		 MNZ
2
6		 MNZ
3
10		 PAU
1
Ret		 PAU
2
Ret		 PAU
3
10		 HUN
1
7		 HUN
2
3		 HUN
3
4		 NOR
1
3		 NOR
2
8		 NOR
3
12		 SPA
1
12		 SPA
2
17		 SPA
3
3		 ZAN
1
16		 ZAN
2
8		 ZAN
3
4		 NÜR
1
9		 NÜR
2
14		 NÜR
3
Ret		 RBR
1
9		 RBR
2
19		 RBR
3
14		 HOC
1
13		 HOC
2
3		 HOC
3
3		 8th 149
2018 Prema Theodore Racing Mercedes PAU
1
1		 PAU
2
12		 PAU
3
13		 HUN
1
2		 HUN
2
4		 HUN
3
5		 NOR
1
9		 NOR
2
12		 NOR
3
4		 ZAN
1
2		 ZAN
2
3		 ZAN
3
2		 SPA
1
Ret		 SPA
2
Ret		 SPA
3
13		 SIL
1
Ret		 SIL
2
6		 SIL
3
8		 MIS
1
4		 MIS
2
11		 MIS
3
Ret		 NÜR
1
7		 NÜR
2
8		 NÜR
3
8		 RBR
1
12		 RBR
2
9		 RBR
3
11		 HOC
1
1		 HOC
2
10		 HOC
3
5		 8th 203

Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position points) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 DC Points
2019 UNI-Virtuosi Racing BHR
FEA
10		 BHR
SPR
4		 BAK
FEA
Ret		 BAK
SPR
10		 CAT
FEA
3		 CAT
SPR
4		 MON
FEA
5		 MON
SPR
3		 LEC
FEA
4		 LEC
SPR
3		 RBR
FEA
6		 RBR
SPR
8		 SIL
FEA
3		 SIL
SPR
8		 HUN
FEA
9		 HUN
SPR
9		 SPA
FEA
C		 SPA
SPR
C		 MNZ
FEA
Ret		 MNZ
SPR
4		 SOC
FEA
10		 SOC
SPR
5		 YMC
FEA
3		 YMC
SPR
8		 7th 140
2020 UNI-Virtuosi Racing RBR1
FEA
17		 RBR1
SPR
14		 RBR2
FEA
3		 RBR2
SPR
4		 HUN
FEA
10		 HUN
SPR
8		 SIL1
FEA
2		 SIL1
SPR
9		 SIL2
FEA
9		 SIL2
SPR
7		 CAT
FEA
3		 CAT
SPR
14		 SPA
FEA
 SPA
SPR
 MNZ
FEA
 MNZ
SPR
 MUG
FEA
 MUG
SPR
 SOC
FEA
 SOC
SPR
 6th* 76*

* Season still in progress.

Notes
  1. 2 poles achieved during qualifying, and 0 poles given as a result of the reverse grid in the sprint race.[1]
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References
  1. "Formula 2 poles". results.motorsportstats.com. Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  2. "GUANYU ZHOU JOINS THE RENAULT SPORT ACADEMY FOR 2019". 22 January 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  3. "Zhou Guanyu joins Techeetah as a development driver". 27 April 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  4. "Renault F1 Team officially launches its 2020 campaign" (Press release). Renault. 12 February 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020. Guanyu Zhou takes on a new role this year as he is promoted to Test Driver
  5. "Ferrari protege Zhou joins Motopark in F3". 15 February 2016. Archived from the original on 16 February 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  6. "Zhou switches to Prema for sophomore F3 season". 12 December 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  7. "Guan Yu Zhou | Ferrari Driver Academy Official Site". fda.ferrari.com. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  8. "Guanyu Zhou together with UNI-Virtuosi Racing in 2019 - Formula 2". www.fiaformula2.com. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  9. "Qualifying: Zhou storms to Feature Race pole ahead of Drugovich". GPToday.net. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  10. Simmons, Marcus (4 July 2020). "Red Bull Ring F2: Ilott leads Ferrari junior 1-2-3 to win feature race". autosport.com. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  11. Allen, Peter (10 June 2014). "Chinese karter Guanyu Zhou joins Ferrari Driver Academy". Formula Scout. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  12. "Chinese youngster Guanyu Zhou joins Renault as Development Driver". www.formula1.com. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  13. "Chinese driver Guanyu Zhou becomes Renault 2020 F1 test driver". formula1.com. 12 February 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  14. "RACE HIGHLIGHTS: Guanyu Zhou takes victory in a thrilling Bahrain Virtual Grand Prix | Formula 1®". www.formula1.com. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
Awards
Preceded by
Inaugural		 Anthoine Hubert Award
2019		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
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