From Jiang Tengyi to Cheng Congfu, they have been placed high hopes, and then the later Dutch Chinese driver Dong Hebin joined the Renault team and became the third driver, and then Ma Qinghua appeared in the F1 practice competition, and the expectations of the majority of Chinese fans for "China's F1 first person" have never stopped. Now, with Zhou Guanyu in the F2 arena, has an extremely outstanding performance, fans are looking forward to next year's F1 race, can appear Chinese figure. Especially when the Alfa Romeo team expressed its interest in Zhou Guanyu, and Zhou Guanyu's sponsors and team were willing to pay a sponsorship fee of 30 million euros to the Alfa Romeo team, so that the Chinese driver could get a place next season. For a time, the news that Zhou Guanyu was about to become an official F1 driver became a hot topic among car fans.
Just as the majority of Chinese car fans are looking forward to the official announcement that The Alfa Romeo Team will soon officially announce that Zhou Guanyu will become the main driver of the new season team and become the teammate of Bottas, the answer given by the Alfa Romeo Team was interviewed by the media in recent days seems to have given a basin of cold water to the majority of Chinese car fans. The Chinese driver still looks some distance away from the track in F1.
Asked if Zhou Guanyu was on the alfa Romeo team's list, Vassell said: "Zhou Guanyu has done a good job in F2 and he is already on the driver's shortlist, not only because Zhou Guanyu is Chinese, but also a front-runner in F2. He's won some races and I think every team in F1 is following him, but now, as I said before, our team's first four races are a little different and now they're back on a more standard track. ”
Since the Belgian Grand Prix, Giovinaz has been in good shape on the track, driving an uncompetitive car, and the Italian driver has finished 7th in qualifying in the Netherlands, equaling his career qualifying best. By last week's Italian Grand Prix, Giovinaz, who was playing on home, continued to have good results in Friday's qualifying and Saturday's impact qualifying, and finally finished 10th and 8th. If it weren't for Giovinaz's slightly less luck in the main game, perhaps he would have the second official point of his career.
As Giovinaz gradually finds a sense of the race, it seems to be a more secure and sensible decision to leave the old man behind by Alfa Romeo's team than to choose a newcomer from F2. Therefore, even if Zhou Guanyu's team is willing to pay a sponsorship fee of 30 million euros to the Alfa Romeo team, from the current situation, this 30 million euros does not seem to affect the direction of the F1 team to choose the direction of the official driver of the new season.
At least from the current mainstream media reports in F1, and the attitude given by the Alfa Romeo team, Zhou Guanyu is by no means a step away from F1, and the future of the Chinese driver is still full of unknowns!