Zhou Guanyu Photo: VCG

 

Chinese Formula One driver in waiting Zhou Guanyu took a step closer to realizing his dream when he took part in his official F1 debut last weekend at the Austrian Grand Prix.

"Amazing" was how the Shanghai-born driver described it and the 22-year-old certainly stepped up when he took control of Fernando Alonso's car at the the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.

Zhou clocked in at a creditable 14th place in the free practice session on July 2, his 1 minute 06.414 seconds lap time better than former Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel on the day.

The 22-year-old was just half a second slower than his Alpine F1 teammate Esteban Ocon, though Zhou was on the medium tires rather than the faster soft tires of Ocon.

"It was amazing," Zhou told the Formula One website after making his official debut. "I'm really thankful for this opportunity - the team believing in me stepping into Fernando's car. I had to take care of it, but I was also pushing as much as I could to show my full potential.

"I used my first set of tires to get into a rhythm, and from the second set I was able to explore myself as much as I wanted to."

"It was not a perfect lap. I locked up in a few parts, but in the end, I'm happy with the lap time," the Formula 2 leader added.

"I went through all the lap times with Esteban and I think we were actually quite similar. Less than two-tenths on the same compound tires.

"I'm happy with how it went and I definitely proved myself here, but there's still a lot of work to be done in the background and to keep improving more in the future.

"At the end, we were actually quite fast with the medium tires and the team was really happy with the job we've done. We actually did a lot rather than just focus on the lap time. We were mainly focused on getting the new setup changed to help the team.

"And the lap time was also there, so that's another thing less to worry about. Now we really just focus on the future and what more I can bring to the team."

Zhou made history by becoming the first Chinese mainland driver to feature in F1 free practice since Ma Qinghua did so at the Shanghai Grand Prix in 2012. Ma has since gone on to a career in touring cars.

If Zhou is to succeed where Ma did not and turn his F1 practice session into a full drive at the highest level of motorsport, then he is going about it the right way.

He needs to make sure that he has the requisite 40 points to get a Super Licence, which is needed before a real F1 ride is possible - even if there were a seat with a constructor available.

Zhou is well on the way thanks to winning the F3 Asian Championship back in April and his strong start to his third season in Formula 2 with UNI-Virtuosi Racing. In fact he only needs four Super Licence points from the F2 season.

Not that he wants anything less than victory. "If I can get the title, it's definitely [a sign that] I can be an F1 driver, that I'm ready to be driving an F1 car and that's exactly the target for this year, to try to win the title or be a title contender," he said at an Alpine Academy press conference in February.

He is top of the drivers' championship with 78 points though Oscar Piastri has cut that lead, which was once 23 points, down to just five.

Nonetheless, Zhou has won the feature race in Bahrain and a sprint race in Monaco with the season set to continue at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone later this month. He is not yet gettng carried away.

"It felt special to drive FP1 [free practice 1] today. I'm really happy with all my runs and I was able to get familiar with the tires early on," Zhou said.

"I didn't expect to be up to speed so quickly and the pace was definitely there on the mediums. I felt good this morning, and I was getting more confident on each lap. I just wanted to build it up steadily and grow into the session.

"I'd like to thank the team for the opportunity, it was certainly very special. Hopefully I made everyone proud and there will be more moments like this later in my career."

He is sure what he wants for later in his career - and that is to become China's first F1 driver.

"I'm ready to jump into F1 and do the best I can and put everything I've learned from these past two years," he told Xinhua last month ahead of the Baku Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.

"With all the track time I've had in the last two years with Alpine, it gave me extra time to be better prepared, and on my side, I'm ready to jump into an F1 car."

He has jumped into an F1 car several times as an Alpine test driver and now with his first F1 free practice but he knows there is more hard work if he is to make it.

"This year is going to be one of the most important years of my racing career. I've been training double, harder than ever, because it's going to be such an important year ahead," Zhou told Xinhua.

"F2 races are on the same weekends as F1, so that's good - a lot of people will be watching. If I can win the championship or finish in the top three, that will give me quite a high possibility to have an F1 seat [in 2022]."

There are others who share his hope, not least motorsport fans back home but also Alpine's Mia Sharziman.

"It was a once in a generational project," Sharizman said of Zhou. "We will never see another Chinese driver [with Zhou's prospects] for the next 15-20 years, whether in Formula 3 or Formula 4 or Formula 2.

"And I think that is something that from the team itself, the Renault Group, the Alpine F1 team, we are more committed than ever to make sure that happens in the future."