The first leg of the 2022 F1 Grand Prix held on the evening of March 20 in Bahrain is believed to have attracted the attention of many racing enthusiasts, and unlike in the past, there was a handsome Chinese face in this race, which was only 22 years old and China's first F1 driver - Zhou Guanyu. At the end of the race at 1:00 a.m. on March 21, Beijing time, Zhou Guanyu finally finished 10th, and with this position, he won a valuable 1 point, and became the first Chinese driver to win F1 regular points.
Zhou Guanyu scored points for his F1 debut
This achievement has made many people who pay attention to F1 excited, and the relevant news has once been on the hot search. So, how did this young man named Zhou Guanyu step by step come to the stage of this world-renowned sports event and achieve today's achievements? Let's let the Smart Car Sender take you to get to know the Chinese race driver who won the first points.
It all starts by chance
As one of the most expensive sporting events in the world, F1 is the highest level of annual series of track racing competitions organized by the International Motor Sports Federation, and the highest level of racing competition in the world today, this event is extremely demanding for drivers, only by passing a series of tests can they have the opportunity to become a real F1 driver, so every F1 driver is the product of talent and hard work. And Zhou Guanyu just satisfied these two points. However, his embarkation on the road to racing stemmed from a fortuitous attempt.
Born on May 30, 1999 in Shanghai, China, Zhou Guanyu first came into contact with racing at the age of 8, according to his own description, a fortuitous attempt at the age of 8. In 2007, when the 8-year-old Zhou Guanyu experienced a two-seater go-kart with his father by chance, the young Zhou Guanyu initially showed fear of go-karting, but with his father's encouragement, he finally experienced it. It was also after experiencing go-karting for the first time that Zhou Guanyu's attitude towards go-karts changed from fear to excitement, and he gradually fell in love with this feeling of galloping, which also changed the trajectory of his life.
Zhou Guanyu who participated in a go-kart race when he was young (Source Network)
I don't know whether it was Zhou Guanyu's own love for go-karts, or his parents discovered his talent in karting, in short, Zhou Guanyu began to participate in the National Karting Championship in China at the age of 8. He finished third in the NCJ-A group in his first year and won the NCJ-A group of the National Karting Championship in 2009. In 2010, he was promoted to the NCJ-B group and won the annual championship. In 2010, he also won 8 karting events with a record of 8 wins and 8 wins, and was honored with the "Most Promising Driver Award" and "Best Newcomer Award", which can be said to have shown strong strength at a young age.
Stayed in The Ocean to join the Ferrari Youth Academy
Although in the country "big kills", but limited by the domestic racing culture, the relevant youth training and high-level events are relatively lacking, so the well-off Zhou Guanyu was sent to the United Kingdom by his parents for training and learning, and Zhou Guanyu was only 12 years old at the time, and he went to an unfamiliar country to study, train and live at a young age, which was a big challenge for him. However, he eventually persevered and still achieved good results. He won the 2012 European Karting Championship in France at the age of 14-17, becoming the first driver in the event's history to win a race at the age of 13.
Zhou Guanyu signed for Ferrari Young Drivers Academy
2013 was a fruitful year for Zhou Guanyu, in which he won the European Series titles in the Rotax, ABKC and S1 Rotax Junior Divisions. He also won the All-American Championship, the All England Championship and the European Championships in the 14-17 years old category, and finished third in the World Finals. With many titles, Zhou Guanyu officially signed with the Ferrari Young Drivers Academy in 2014, becoming the first professional driver in Asia to sign a contract with the F1 top manufacturers' team youth training system. He also officially started his formula racing career.
In 2015, Zhou Guanyu began to participate in the F4 Championship. And achieved the status of runner-up and best rookie of the year. A year later, Zhou Guanyu started his own F3 race, and in the next three years, Zhou Guanyu participated in several rounds of F3 level events and ranked 8th in 2017 with 149 points. In 2018, Zhou Guanyu continued to compete in the European F3 Championship at Prema Racing, and ended the season with 3 pole positions and 2 wins, finishing 8th with 203 points.
The dream came true and became China's first F1 driver
After 3 years of F3 racing, Zhou Guanyu made a surprising decision in 2018: leaving the Ferrari Drivers' Academy and joining the Renault Sports Academy in 2019, becoming the development driver of the Renault F1 team and the first driver in China to sign an F1 team. Joining alpine F1 gave him more exposure to F1 racing, which also took his dream F1 career a step further. In the following competition, Zhou Guanyu was on the podium 5 times as a newcomer and won the pole position once, and finally won the 2019 FIA "Best Newcomer of the Year Award" with the overall ranking of 7th.
Zhou Guanyu joined the Renault Sports Academy
Since then, a series of "First Man in China" titles have been with him, becoming the first Chinese driver to win the second place in the first leg of the 2020 F2 UK race, and then winning the second leg of the F2 Championship in Sochi, Russia, becoming the first Chinese driver to win the F2 Championship. After receiving many accolades, Zhou Guanyu finally attracted the attention of the F1 team. On the evening of November 16, 2021, F1 team Alfa Romeo Racing team officially announced that it has officially signed Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu, who will play for the team in F1 for the 2022 season with Bottas from Mercedes-Benz.
Zhou Guanyu became the first person in China's F1
This news is a historic moment for both Zhou Guanyu himself and domestic F1 racing fans. The news that Zhou Guanyu became China's first F1 driver also attracted the attention of many people on the same day, and Han Han, who has always loved motorsport, also congratulated him, saying that Zhou Guanyu's influence on F1 events is like Liu Xiang's influence on athletics and Yao Ming on basketball. After signing the contract, Zhou Guanyu did not stop winning. He won consecutive awards in the following competitions, and finally ended the 2021 season as the third place in F2, officially opening his 2022 F1 race.
Debut on the field, the future can be expected
Although he qualified as an F1 driver, the high exposure also increased the pressure on Zhou Guanyu. Fortunately, he was not complacent about becoming an F1 driver, and he knew that he could not get to this point without hard training. In a previous interview with the media, Zhou Guanyu said: "How many difficulties and hardships have been experienced in recent years, perhaps outsiders are not very clear, especially if you are a Chinese driver, if you want to achieve the same results as foreign drivers in the European dominant racing circle, win the same opportunities, you have to pay more efforts." "After entering F1, the competition in the circle full of masters will be more intense, which also makes him dare not slack off in the slightest
Zhou Guanyu represented Alfa Romeo racing team in F1
The race that ended in the early hours of this morning is Zhou Guanyu's debut in the F1 main event, although he is a newcomer, Zhou Guanyu's performance is far beyond people's expectations of him, whether it is the "head-to-head" with the car king Hamilton during the race, or catching up with other opponents all the way in the course of the race, which reflects his skills and courage. And finally won the 10th place and won the first point of his F1 career, but also let his debut is perfect, you know, in the history of F1, only a few drivers such as Rosberg, Hamilton can get points on the debut, although Zhou Guanyu's final 10th ranking has a little luck component, but it still shows the characteristics of calmness and dare to fight on the field.
Current 2022 F1 drivers' standings
Compared with Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and other teams, The car of The Alfa Romeo Team has no advantage in performance, and from the overall points, the Alfa Romeo Team is also in the lower reaches of the team ranking. After the race, Zhou Guanyu himself admitted that he was not so adapted to the new car, it took a while to run in, and at the same time, through the race, he also had a fuller understanding of the strength of other opponents. Although this season as Zhou Guanyu's debut season, it is very difficult to stand on the podium like an F2 event, but with the accumulation of competition experience and the improvement of cooperation with vehicles and team members, I believe that it is not completely impossible to see Zhou Guanyu on the podium of F1 events in the near future.
Write at the end
Unlike the Olympic Games and the World Cup, F1 (Formula One), which is also one of the world's three major sports events, has far less attention in China than the previous two, partly because F1 entered the country late and is far less publicized than the Olympic Games and the World Cup. On the other hand, the first two are both participating in the name of the country, and the mainland has participated in the main competition, whether it is the athletes who won medals in the Olympic Games or the national football team in the 2002 World Cup, which gave the Chinese a home team to cheer for themselves.
But in F1, the situation is different, because there has been no Chinese to participate, plus the F1 event has a small domestic audience, so not much attention. As Zhou Guanyu officially becomes the first Chinese F1 driver, I believe that under his publicity and leadership, more and more people will begin to pay attention to F1 events, and at the same time let more people like the sport. As the first person in F1, Zhou Guanyu is bound to be recorded in history and become the spiritual idol of many rising stars in the future.