Last winter, The Alfa Romeo F1 team officially announced the signing of Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu. As soon as the news came out, various media reports on the first Person of Chinese F1 drivers were endless. As soon as the paddock newcomer appeared on the scene, he faced voices from all sides, support and doubts. But he has a remarkable performance in the new season that has just begun, and quickly gained a foothold in this rarely Chinese event.
Undoubtedly, he has completed half of the goal of the 2022 season, proving the speed of the Chinese drivers by virtue of his strength. At the same time, we can't help but ask: Zhou Guanyu-like Chinese drivers, can China do a dozen more?
Attitude is one of the foundations of Zhou Guanyu's success
In a tournament with only 20 seats in the world, talent is indeed very important, but it is not a sufficient condition.
Zhou Guanyu was exposed to karting from the age of seven, and at the age of ten, he showed his absolute talent for racing, winning all eight sub-stations of the National Karting Championship that year, and he became the first person in the country at the same age.
In order to chase dreams, but also because of the power of idols. When Ma Qinghua spent money in the paddock in 2012, Zhou Guanyu traveled to the south of Yorkshire, England, and very formulaically embarked on the path of F1 racing experience, becoming a member of the British karting system.
There, talented players gathered, filled with fiercer competition, and adapted to a tighter schedule in an unfamiliar cultural system. In those two years, he resumed his racing career, competing in the Super One National Championship and the 2013 Rotax Max European Challenge Cup.
God did not give Zhou Guanyu a script for the dark horse, whether it was the F4 or F3 career later, Zhou Guanyu was successively overshadowed by the genius of Lando Norris, Joel Erikson, and Mick Schumacher. Four or five years of unfocused novice struggles have been a little longer. Zhou Guanyu has strength, but it is difficult to translate his speed into results.
Even though Zhou Guanyu won the Zandvoort sub-station championship that year, at the end of 2018, Ferrari still terminated its four-year partnership with Zhou Guanyu. It can be described as a difficult road and a lot of wrong roads. However, the long wind and waves finally sometimes, after switching to the Renault system, Zhou Guanyu has been tempered for many years, and finally shines in the paddock, hanging directly on the cloud sail to save the sea.
Among them, in addition to his family's efforts, he also has his own love and persistence. His dedicated attitude towards racing has inspired him to get to where he is now.
While the cake is bigger, it cannot be less rule-conscious
Zhou Guanyu's breakthrough in F1 is a milestone for the Chinese racing market, not only because he brought the five-star red flag into the paddock, but also because he promoted the Chinese racing market to radiate to more cities across the country with Shanghai as the center.
With the success of Hublot, the elites in China's political and business circles have gained huge traffic and business expansion popularity, and more brand endorsements such as Ammus AMX and Hennessy have found this sports IP to share a piece of traffic.
Until then, motorsport has never had so much traffic and capital attention in China. But 2022 is different, in addition to the commercial activities around Zhou Guanyu, in early February, Redmi also announced itself as the exclusive mobile phone partner of the Mercedes-AMG F1 team under the slogan of "Exploring The Ultimate Performance Together".
Among the many sports IP, racing has a more accurate audience positioning advantage. More brands have seen the growing commercial value of sports events in China during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and F1, which has followed the Beijing Winter Olympics schedule and has a high reputation abroad, has become a feast.
Although the epidemic continues to ravage the world, F1 viewership data is still stable. According to the F12021 season viewership data released by the FIA, the cumulative number of TV viewers in the 2021 season is 1.55 billion, an increase of 4% over 2020. With an average of 70.3 million TV viewers per Grand Prix, Abu Dhabi's showdown attracted 108.7 million viewers worldwide. In addition, the number of independent spectators in China reached 70.8 million, accounting for 16% of the total number of independent spectators in the whole season, an increase of 13% over the 2020 season.
The industry cake will become bigger and bigger, but the rules for cutting this cake also need to be formulated urgently. Motorsport is completely different from the Olympic Games, with a completely different athlete training system and rules of the event, it should be accompanied by another set of mature commercial marketing rules.
If the development trend of F1 in China is to continue, there should also be a youth training system of Chinese racing to ensure the continuous output of racing athletes. As far as Zhou Guanyu's experience is concerned, his persistence is precious. If only by the spontaneous love of the Chinese people, Zhou Guanyu's successful experience will be like gu Ailing, which may only be an isolated case, and China's speed will only become a flash in the pan in the world racing competition.