At 1:00 a.m. Beijing time today, with the roar of the engine, Zhou Guanyu drove the red racing car of the Alfa Romeo team across the finish line and finally ranked 10th, earning a milestone point. In China thousands of miles away, many spectators stayed up late to witness this moment, after the game he quickly rushed to the hot search, as the "first person" who made a historic breakthrough, Zhou Guanyu really stimulated the acceleration of F1 sports in China this weekend, how will the "Zhou Guanyu effect" affect the Chinese and foreign markets in the future?
01
Zhou Guanyu scored a record 1 point
If test matches, practice matches, and qualifying matches are training, drills, and "bottom-ups," then the main competition is a real-life battle. On the Sakil circuit, there are contemporary car kings, seven-time champion Hamilton, the youngest F1 station champion, Verstappen, who became the world champion at the age of 24, Alonso, who won the world championship in 2005, and the rest of the drivers, there are also a lot of people who have won the F1 race championship and the F2 annual champion, and Zhou Guanyu, as the F1 "rookie", is obviously the most inconspicuous one.
Starting from 15th, Zhou Guanyu fell to the bottom of the game at one point, but after running ten laps, he overtook consecutively to chase the 14th place. On lap 11, the "famous scene" came - Hamilton led the first station to change a hard tire, and when he returned to the track, he happened to meet Zhou Guanyu, and the two sides "tangled", who took advantage of the lack of grip of the opponent's tire to surpass Hamilton, although it was quickly regained by the old man, but this picture still created a high flow.
In the second half of the race, Zhou Guanyu was basically in the 12th and 13th places, and the last moment of the race made waves again, Red Bull Racing's champions Verstappen and Perez in the 3rd and 5th places, successively withdrew due to the exhaustion of the car power, zhou Guanyu, who was originally ranked 11th, rose to 10th place because of this accident, and finally successfully won the first points of the Chinese driver in the F1 race.
Some people may feel confused, 10th place, 1 point, very remarkable?
Sorry, that's really remarkable!
You know, after the son of Schumacher Schumacher, the king of the car, has not won points since last year, and he has not won points for a whole debut season so far, and in this main race, Zhou Guanyu has also completed the surpassing of Mick Schumacher.
02
Alfa Romeo into the "Chinese home team"?
Chinese elements shine on the F1 track, not only Zhou Guanyu himself and his helmet with a full Chinese style, in the body and tires of the new Car C42 driven by Zhou Guanyu, there is a significant trademark exposed, that is, the Chinese yogurt brand Ammusi (AMX), as the team just signed this month, can now be regarded as earning enough eyeballs, many netizens directly called to buy AMX after driving.
Although Alfa Romeo is only a small team in F1, when Zhou Guanyu joined, commercial sponsorship followed, and various signings became the "daily routine" of this team. Polish industrial giant ORLEN is the main title sponsor, and from February this year to now, the team has signed more than ten sponsors, and the investment efficiency has won the entire F1 in the off-season.
With the deepening of the new season, Zhou Guanyu continues to appear in the competition, and it will not be long before the Alfa Romeo team from Italy will become the "home team" in the minds of Chinese car fans, and will benefit a lot in advertising, broadcasting, peripheral products and other aspects in the future. Zhou Guanyu is obviously a golden key to open the Chinese market.
Moreover, Zhou Guanyu's sunny and handsome image is also a major advantage of his "salt".
03
An F1 event that wants to conquer the Chinese market
F1 commercial events also want to vigorously explore the Chinese market, because countless sports have proved that the Chinese market is a part of today's sports world that cannot be ignored.
If last year's Hamilton and Verstappen's "Dragon and Tiger Fight" gave F1 a second spring, the addition of Zhou Guanyu will allow more Chinese to enter or refocus on the event. This is exactly what F1 wants to see, and they announced the renewal of the Shanghai Grand Prix until 2025 soon after Zhou Guanyu joined (if it cannot be held due to the epidemic, it will be postponed later), which is enough to see the importance that the event attaches to the Chinese market and Chinese drivers.
In the season promotional film released by F1 officials a few days ago, Zhou Guanyu appeared in the camera for the first time, which is enough to show the high attention of this Chinese driver, and also reflects the F1 official hope to further expand the influence of the event in the Chinese racing market and Chinese racing fans through Zhou Guanyu.
For the past 20 years, F1 has been trying to enter the Chinese market, but even the F1 Grand Prix held in Shanghai has attracted only a small amount of attention, but with the debut of the first Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu and the addition of a large number of sponsors behind him, it will make people feel that the opportunity to penetrate the Chinese market has come.
04
F1's door to China has not yet been fully opened
Interestingly, China's copyright market doesn't seem to be ready compared to the enthusiastic performance of capital from all sides. For the audience, the first competition week after the first person in F1 China to participate, the biggest confusion is "where to watch the game".
This new season F1 opener, whether from the 2018 season to hold the exclusive new media copyright of F1 China, Tencent Sports, or CCTV Sports Channel, did not provide a game signal, the current national can normally watch the platform is Shanghai Five Star Sports and Guangdong Sports, but most of the non-Shanghai users, need to pay 199 yuan to open the membership before watching the game.
But this point does not have to worry too much, with a large number of spectators, I believe that it will not be long before watching F1 live on major platforms will not become difficult, then Zhou Guanyu will really stimulate the acceleration of F1 sports in China, just as Yao Ming for Chinese basketball, Li Na's impact on Chinese tennis, after all, in the world of F1, there is now a Chinese driver who can make everyone cheer.
Text/Qiu Ye
Photo: Xinhua News Agency