Late Sunday night Beijing time, the curtain of the new F1 season opened in Bahrain.
China's major online mainstream platforms may not have expected that this year's F1 has far exceeded their expectations. Although the race time is from late at night to early in the morning, the viewing time is not friendly to Chinese car fans, but the heat on major social media will tell you how many new and old car fans are looking for ways to follow the progress of this race. Many of them came to see the Hamilton vs Verstappen summit showdown, and many of them were eagerly awaiting Ferrari's revival after qualifying, but I am afraid that the largest number of Chinese car fans are waiting for a young Chinese man to appear.
Let us introduce you again: the Chinese teenager in the picture below is 22-year-old Zhou Guanyu, the first Chinese driver in F1 history, who has already made his Debut for a Chinese driver in F1 in the recent Bahrain race.
On a global scale, the return of the Ferrari king is of course a more discussed topic, this team that represents countless heritage and glory in the history of F1, in the first battle of this season, let the red storm sweep the paddock, and the two drivers Leclerc and Sainz declared that "Wofa Ethane" was completely a thing of the past in the way of one or two returns. But just 23 seconds after Leclerc won the title, an Alfa Romeo 24 car with a red and white match also roared past the black and white finish line representing the finish line - Zhou Guanyu, who debuted in F1 and finished in 10th place.
It's almost impossible to make a more perfect debut. Zhou Guanyu started 15th among all 20 drivers on the day, and he completed a total of 14 overtakings in the whole process, relying on his stable driving and a little luck to help, Guanyu finally won the 10th place in the race. All friends who know the current rules of F1 know that this means that Zhou Guanyu won 1 point in the first game of his F1 career. For the highly competitive F1 world, Zhou Guanyu's performance is one of the best debut performances in recent years, and it has even stunned the world racing circle, which has excited alfa Romeo's fans around the world.
"It's incredible, I don't even know how to describe it in words," Zhou Guanyu said in a post-match interview with F1's official television, "It's a game full of emotions, and it's so intense." Being able to get points in my first F1 match is something I used to dream about. ”
Turning dreams into reality is actually what Zhou Guanyu has been doing.
Over the past 72 years of F1's history, hundreds of grand prix races have been held, with 776 drivers driving F1 cars on tracks around the world. But among them, there has never been a Chinese driver. Although there are also predecessors and pioneers such as Dong Hebin and Ma Qinghua, these two are only driving F1 cars for testing or practice. Therefore, for a long time, the seat of the official driver of Formula 1 was a distant dream for the whole of China.
Zhou Guanyu's luck is that he began to dream earlier than many other peers. Back in 2004, Chinese racing ushered in a grand event, F1 began to add F1 Chinese Grand Prix, held in the Shanghai International Circuit "on the track". Since the beginning of this year, the roaring V10 motor sound has come from the TV screen to real life, shaking the hearts of countless Chinese car fans - young Zhou Guanyu was already a car fan at that time.
In 2005, the F1 Shanghai race was the last stop of the year, and Chinese fans were able to witness the end of F1 at their doorstep, and Renault driver Alonso took the lead in crashing the line on the spot, winning the championship title of driver and team for himself and Renault team. So Alonso has also gained countless fans in China, including 6-year-old Zhou Guanyu (pictured below), who came to the stadium to watch the game that day, and used the blue flag in his hand to prove his identity as an Alonso fan, and witnessing the idol win the championship, the seed of the dream began to sprout in Zhou Guanyu's heart.
"He was the one who gave me great motivation in the beginning," Zhou Guanyu said of Alonso.
Zhou Guanyu was born in the most internationally minded city in China and has good family conditions. So when he told his parents about his dream, Zhou Guanyu received full support from his family. From the age of 8, Zhou Guanyu began to participate in domestic karting events, and showed extremely high talent, and soon became a unique player in the same age group, winning countless championships. It was also at that time that Zhou Guanyu tasted the sweetness brought to him by motorsport. However, the good times did not last long, and Zhou Guanyu quickly touched the invisible ceiling.
"In China, the biggest problem is that there is no leader in motorsport," Zhou Guanyu said, "no driver has ever been in F1 before, so you can't learn from the experience of your predecessors, and no one tells you how to move forward and develop yourself." ”
So, Zhou Guanyu and his family made a big decision. When Zhou Guanyu was 12 years old, the family moved to London, England, to Europe, where the racing culture and event structure are most mature and developed, so that Zhou Guanyu could receive more systematic training and let him continue to move towards his dream. "I went from being a driver who won all the races in my hometown to being a catcher," Mr. Zhou said, "and I had to train harder." Later, I won a lot of karting titles and since then I've started to move into formula racing, into some F1 team academy. ”
Obviously, after joining the F1 youth training system, Zhou Guanyu has fully established his determination to rush into F1. He successfully passed the test of F4 and F3 and was promoted to F2 in 2019, which is also the last hurdle before entering F1. Meanwhile, Zhou Guanyu left Ferrari's youth system to join the Renault team – the same team he played for when his childhood idol Alonso won the title. Although it is closer to F1, Zhou Guanyu is also very aware that the time before dawn is often the darkest moment.
"I'm so close to there, and at the same time so far," Zhou Guanyu deeply realized, what is called a hundred miles and a half ninety, "after F2, the next step is F1." You will either accomplish this goal or you will die outright, and that door will be completely closed to you. ”
Zhou Guanyu said this, not alarmist, but the essence of motorsport. Compared with other sports, the ability of the driver is important in motorsport, but especially in this day and age, it is no longer the only factor that determines the performance. Good racing, especially good engines, became the key to the success of F1 teams. The reason why the famous Ferrari has been in the doldrums for many years is that it has fallen behind many teams in the development of the car.
So how can a team have a better and faster car? It boils down to one word: money. As long as you are willing to invest enough money, the car that is created will most likely run faster on the track. At the F1 level, every team invests hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
Therefore, of course, the F1 team needs good drivers, but they need members who can "create value" for the team, have money to engage in research and development, have money to hire the best technical personnel, so friends who know F1 know that in recent years, there are many new drivers, are "with funds into the group".
For example, Lance Stroor, a former race point team and now Aston Martin Team, won an F1 driver's seat after his father, Lawrence Stroor, bought the team. There is also Haas Racing's Mick Schumacher, Red Bull Racing's Perez, under the premise that their driving skills have been proven, thanks to the support of the big money behind them, they have occupied a place in F1.
Such an advantage also exists in Zhou Guanyu's body. Backed by such a huge automobile market in China, coupled with the rise of racing culture, many Chinese companies hope to use Zhou Guanyu as a window to show their brands in front of F1 fans around the world. F1, which is now acquired by the American Free Media Group, also hopes to open up the vast market in China. In such a situation of mutual need, Zhou Guanyu's entry into the F1 arena actually has a certain innate advantage.
But this does not mean that Zhou Guanyu can smooth down and rein in the F1 track.
Because a new driver in the world of F1, once labeled as "bringing money into the group", often means more pressure. In November 2021, the Alfa Romeo team officially announced that they will replace all two of the team's regular drivers, except for Bottas, who jumped from mercedes-Benz team, and another place was given to Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu.
From that moment on, Zhou Guanyu not only brought long-lost excitement to the Chinese sports world, but also was labeled a "paid driver" by many skeptics, and there have been rumors that Zhou Guanyu was chosen to bring $30 million in sponsorship directly to Alpha Romeo, and more people are ready to use a critical eye to examine Zhou Guanyu's performance after debuting.
How should Zhou Guanyu face these doubts? Of course, he believes that he has strength, in 2021 he broke through his bottleneck in F2, won 4 race championships in a single year, ranking third in the F2 year-end standings, but the doubters have already prepared more adequate arguments: Australia's Piastri, 2 years younger than Zhou Guanyu, won the drivers' championship for the first time last year, and Zhou Guanyu achieved "curve overtaking" in the race for drivers' places?
Fortunately, Zhou Guanyu is a young man with a strong heart, and in addition to Alonso, he has a very important idol in the sports world, this idol is a person who is never afraid of outside voices, and even turns all doubts into his own motivation.
Looking at Zhou Guanyu's duck-tongue hat and the "No. 24" on the car, you must already know who this idol is. Zhou Guanyu said: "I chose the 24th to commemorate Kobe Bryant. So he was ready to fight back with his performance.
In fact, competitive sports have one very good point: this place, only by the results of the talk. In fact, the story of bringing funds into the group is much more in the Chinese entertainment industry, but Zhou Guanyu does not need fans to go to social media to shout "our brother has acting skills", he only used one game to make all the doubts disappear.
Zhou Guanyu reached the points zone in the first game of his F1 career, and after the game he said toughly: "I have always said a word, that is, I deserve this seat. Today, I feel like I showed everything. It's an indescribable release and the greatest reward for the efforts of our team. I will never forget such a day. ”
For Chinese sports, Zhou Guanyu is simply a character who came out of nowhere, not only because he is handsome and energetic, but also because he thoroughly represents the new direction of Chinese sports and even the whole of China.
In fact, the idol vacuum of Chinese sports has lasted for a long time, after Yao Ming, Liu Xiang, Li Na have retired one after another, Chinese sports have never produced the next global idol, we are invincible in the Olympic arena, but in those highly professional world events, there has never been a very representative oriental face.
Yao Ming was born in 1980, Li Na and Liu Xiang were born in 1982 and 1983 respectively, of course, we still remember the past style of these superstars, they are not only radiant on the field, in the speech and demeanor, in the hands and feet, are personable, talk and laugh freely - and this is precisely the characteristics of Zhou Guanyu, and even to some extent, Zhou Guanyu, born in 1999, more than his compatriots Yao Ming and Liu Xiang, can represent the charm of Shanghai and the strength of China.
Yao Ming and Liu Xiang are representatives of the Olympic spirit, because one of them represents "higher" and the other represents "faster", but this means that they are all talented athletes after all, and in the sports field in which they are engaged, physical talent is the most critical factor in determining their success.
Although Zhou Guanyu has a great driving talent, his body is closer to an ordinary person.
To put it more directly: Yao Ming and Liu Xiang are gifted athletes trained in the sports brigade system; Zhou Guanyu is a Gen Z elite who chooses hobbies and stands out under the cultivation of his parents.
The success of Liu Xiang and Yao Ming, the innate factor accounted for 90% of them; Zhou Guanyu's breakthrough, acquired cultivation is obviously far more dominant than talent. It can even be said that in the era when Yao Ming and Liu Xiang grew up, there would be no Zhou Guanyu in China, because at that time, There would be no children in China who had the dream of racing from childhood, there would be no parents who fully supported their children or even willing to go abroad with their families, and of course, no company could pay the "30 million US dollars" sponsorship fee.
Zhou Guanyu can only appear in this era, and it can even be said that he is a witness to chinese children chasing their dreams, Chinese parents changing the way they educate, and even our entire country becoming rich. In the past, you could expect More Olympic Champions in China because our athletes can endure hardships and fight harder, but I never imagined that China would have its own F1 drivers.
Nowadays, everything has changed its old appearance. "In the past, we didn't have a single person from our own country on this field," Zhou Guanyu said, "and in the future, we may see more and more Chinese involved in motorsport." It's great to think about it. ”
Zhou Guanyu is right, he will obviously lead to a new round of racing in China, but the young man may be inspiring much more than that.
In F1 Bahrain, Zhou Guanyu drove the No. 24 car with Kobe Bryant number printed on it, and followed Alonso to finish the race, showing not only the wonderful start of an F1 driver, but also a dream come true story.
When we live in a world where there are already more and more parents who are willing to invest in their children, your idols can not only be Kobe and Alonso, but also Chopin and Bach, Van Gogh and Monet, or even Christopher Nolan, Andy Warhol, or Steve Jobs.
There's nothing you can't do.