When I first interviewed Zhou Guanyu, he had just finished his 15th birthday and completed the contract of the Ferrari Young Driver Academy, which can be described as a young student and a prosperous teenager, and it was at that time that I concluded that he would be able to become an F1 driver.
That interview left a very deep impression, especially Zhou Guanyu's solid family situation, allowing him to concentrate on racing without any outside interference, including business and capital, for a 15-year-old child, a blank piece of paper, too rare! Today he became the first official F1 driver in China, which also confirmed my prediction at that time.
But the stories of Cheng Congfu, Dong Hebin and Ma Qinghua also made many people at the time tell me that everything should not be so certain, especially that year we had just experienced the Ma Qinghua incident - shortly after signing the HRT team to become a full driver in 2013, the team collapsed due to financial conditions, and his F1 road ended before it began - but I always believed that similar incidents would not happen to Zhou Guanyu.
Some would say that F1 money is paramount. Yes, you're right! Especially in the era of free media power, but the admission ticket is not omnipotent, if you want to become a real 1/20, before getting the admission ticket, you must first see that you do not have the diamond.
Although Zhou Guanyu only began to contact karting at the age of 8 and officially started his racing road at the age of 9, which may be a little late compared to the start of some European players at the age of 4 or 5, he won 8 races in the first year of his karting career, won the title of Rookie of the Year, won the national karting championship NCJ-A group of the following year, and then in 2010, he advanced to the NCJ-B group and won the championship again, and like those successful drivers, Zhou Guanyu is very talented.
He also worked hard enough – it was in 2010 that Zhou Guanyu embarked on the road to study in the UK, the birthplace of F1. Usually going to school, weekend training has become the rhythm of Zhou Guanyu's life, constantly playing with the master, constantly arming himself, improving racing skills, of course, including improving foreign language proficiency.
Finally, with unremitting efforts, Zhou Guanyu has a harvest, and in the 2012 European Karting Championship in France, aged 14-17, Zhou Guanyu won the sub-station championship, becoming the first driver in the history of the event to win the sub-station at the age of 13.
In 2013, Zhou Guanyu won the European Series titles in the Rotax, ABKC and S1 Rotax Junior Categories, and won the All American Championship, the All England Championship and the European Championship in the 14-17 years old category.
Looking back on the past, those similar racing mechanical failures caused him to be injured, but even if the wounds and racing clothes were integrated, they tried to complete the race as much as possible, which was the only way for Zhou Guanyu to succeed.
What happened next should be clear to everyone, becoming a Ferrari youth driver, participating in F4, F3 and then F2. In the F2 Championship in the 2021 season, Zhou Guanyu let the five-star red flag fly at the top of the podium for four times, including the first leg of the Monaco Sprint, and the Monaco Circuit is also known as the pearl of the racing world.
Looking at Zhou Guanyu's father's investment over the years, including spending huge sums of money to build a track for him, it can be said that his father's financial resources and his strength complement each other, and in fact, for so many Chinese drivers, Zhou Guanyu is lucky enough.
Fortunately, he has enough parents to support his career, and it just so happens that his parents' ability is enough to support his career, coupled with his own talent and hard work, it is not reasonable to be unsuccessful, and it is with this talent and effort that the results he has achieved today make the money invested by his father heavier.
Even though Zhou Guanyu's road in F1 is still very long, it can be said that he has contributed to China's racing career, at least for those young and powerful cars to point out a direction, so we have reason to believe that China's racing has hope, Chinese drivers have a future, come on Zhou Guanyu, come on, those drivers who work hard enough for their goals.
The author of this article is a kick car gang Lu Yu