In comparison with lots of the rookies that had entered System 1 within the years earlier than he joined the world championship in 2022, Zhou Guanyu has stood out for being one of many extra disciplined younger drivers of his era.
Other than an unlucky incident final 12 months at Hungary, the place he triggered a sequence response in the beginning that took out a number of rivals, the Sauber driver has typically been one of many cleanest on the grid.
Zhou hardly ever retires by means of his personal fault and customarily manages to keep away from spinning out of qualifying, in contrast to some drivers who’re paid rather more to drive far faster automobiles. However whereas consistency and limiting errors are key qualities to have in a System 1 driver, so too is outright velocity. And three years into his F1 profession, Zhou doesn’t seem to have discovered much more velocity than he had in his first season.
Driving the slowest automotive on the grid – and the one one to have failed to attain a degree after the primary 14 rounds – is at all times going to restrict alternatives to impress. Nevertheless it’s telling that whereas Zhou has been slowest of all in Q1 six of the 14 grand prix qualifying periods held thus far this season, crew mate Valtteri Bottas has certified decrease than seventeenth solely as soon as.
In contrast to these decrease down than him on this listing, Zhou hasn’t had as many actually poor weekends. His Jeddah weekend was certainly not good, crashing closely at flip eight in last apply which successfully put him out of qualifying, earlier than he completed final after taking a chance on technique. In Monaco, he was half a second slower than Bottas in qualifying, then allowed himself to get mugged by Logan Sargeant for one of many few overtaking strikes of the race.
Zhou Guanyu
| Finest | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP begin | 14 | 20 (x4) |
| GP end | 11 | 19 |
| Factors | 0 | |
His Montreal weekend was worse. He had one other assembly with the wall in apply earlier than a second spin at flip two ended his last apply session. After being eradicated slowest in Q1, once more, he was the one automotive to complete a lap down within the grand prix – however not less than he reached the chequered flag, in contrast to Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz Jnr.
Zhou has been capable of put collectively respectable weekends too. Maybe his finest got here on the opening spherical of the season in Bahrain the place he rose up from seventeenth on the grid to solely simply miss out on a degree in eleventh place. He additionally flew below the radar in Miami, the place he completed eleventh within the dash race and gained 5 positions within the grand prix to complete 14th, two locations forward of his crew mate. His Spanish Grand Prix drive was additionally underappreciated, ending two locations increased than he began in a race with none Security Automobiles in what is probably going the slowest automotive within the discipline. Silverstone was additionally a good displaying for Zhou as effectively, however virtually each choice his pit wall made through the race appeared to be the mistaken one, which means he made 4 separate journeys by means of the pit lane within the race – one thing not even Max Verstappen might have recovered from.
Other than these highs and lows, nevertheless, Zhou has in any other case been unremarkable. And when there’s a lot expertise on the present grid – with lots extra promising drivers knocking on the door to enter System 1 – that’s merely not sufficient to chop it.
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