Zhou Guanyu joined the Alfa Romeo team in the 2022 season and became the first official driver from China in F1 history. In order to “dream come true”, Zhou Guanyu’s family invested at least 100 million yuan for it, and he joined Alfa Romeo with a sponsorship of 30 million euros (approximately 218 million yuan), which also triggered a wave of heated discussions.
Zhou Guanyu invested 100 million yuan to support his dream family after all the hardships
Zhou Guanyu was born in Shanghai in 1999. When he was 7 years old, he was accompanied by his father for the first time in a two-seater karting in Shanghai Quyang Kart Yard. From the initial little fear to the deep love at the end, Zhou Guanyu received great help from his family all the way.
To help Zhou Guanyu practice karting, his father built Guanyu Automobile Park in Weifang, Shandong. In Guanyu Automobile Park, his father specially built an exclusive karting lane for Zhou Guanyu. After winning consecutive domestic competitions, Zhou Guanyu discussed with his family and decided to go to Europe for further studies.
It is understood that Zhou Guanyu’s father has 20 companies under his name and has strong funds, including the purchase of an F2 team UNI-Virtuosi for him in 2019. “UNI” stands for “UNIVERSE”, and the logo of “UNI” is also like a pinyin variant of “yu”.
Zhou Guanyu started studying abroad when he was 12 years old. At first he was accompanied by his mother. After becoming a Ferrari youth driver, he worked alone. At that time, Zhou Guanyu not only had to learn the professional knowledge of racing, but also needed to adapt to European life and culture. In the 2018 season, Zhou Guanyu began to participate in F3 competitions, won two championships, and has been on the podium six times.
In 2019, Zhou Guanyu joined Renault Youth Training Camp and successfully promoted to F2. Looking back now, this is a turning point in Zhou Guanyu’s career. It is a dignified and courageous decision. It also laid the foundation for Zhou Guanyu to become the first person in F1 in China. Of course, his family behind him contributed more than 100 million yuan in their support.
Zhou Guanyu’s joining with capital leads to controversy and looks forward to speaking with strength in F1 in 2022
Previously, Japan, India and Indonesia have all produced F1 drivers, but China’s historic moments have been waiting until now. In fact, Cheng Congfu and Ma Qinghua have worked hard and have been close to F1, but it is a pity that they all fell short. Cheng Congfu had previously revealed that for his racing dream, his parents gave himself 100 million. The reason why he failed to get into the cockpit of the McLaren car was because of the lack of sponsorship of 15 million euros.
In comparison, Zhou Guanyu is lucky. Outstanding performance in F2, with the basic ability to join F1, super license points have also reached the standard, and more importantly, in the limited vacancies for F1 drivers, Zhou Guanyu seized the last chance. Giovinaz, who was squeezed out of F1 by Zhou Guanyu, said this week, “How ruthless F1 is when money is in charge”.
As a result, the response from Alfa Romeo leader Wasser was: disapproval. “I read Giovinaz’s remarks. To be honest, I am not very interested in this attitude. The team gave him three F1 season opportunities. This is something that many drivers dream of. The world is small. We Professionalism must be maintained.”
Oscar Piastri, who currently leads the F2 sports car driver’s standings, also defended Zhou Guanyu, “We all know he has some financial support, but he did a good job. He received some negative news on social media, but I think most of them are very unfair. I look forward to Zhou Guanyu’s performance in F1 and I think he will do a good job.”
F1, as the spire of the pyramid of motorsports, drivers have their own ways of survival. In today’s F1 paddock, there are many “Second Generation” and “Rich Second Generation” drivers, and Zhou Guanyu’s “joining with capital” is not uncommon. Wasser bluntly said that he hoped that Zhou Guanyu’s joining could attract more Chinese car fans for the Alfa Romeo team and be able to explore the Chinese market more deeply.
As for Zhou Guanyu, after getting a precious opportunity, he should adapt to the rhythm of F1 as soon as possible and find his right position. Chinese racing has opened a new chapter because of Zhou Guanyu’s promotion to F1. We look forward to him being able to open a new era in the 2022 season.Return to Sohu to see more
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