Compared to many of the rookies that had entered Formula 1 in the years before he joined the world championship in 2022, Zhou Guanyu has stood out for being one of the more disciplined young drivers of his generation.
Aside from an unfortunate incident last year at Hungary, where he triggered a chain reaction at the start that took out multiple rivals, the Sauber driver has generally been one of the cleanest on the grid.
Zhou rarely retires through his own fault and generally manages to avoid spinning out of qualifying, unlike some drivers who are paid much more to drive far quicker cars. But while consistency and limiting errors are key qualities to have in a Formula 1 driver, so too is outright speed. And three years into his F1 career, Zhou does not appear to have found a lot more speed than he had in his first season.
Driving the slowest car on the grid – and the only one to have failed to score a point after the first 14 rounds – is always going to limit opportunities to impress. But it’s telling that while Zhou has been slowest of all in Q1 six of the 14 grand prix qualifying sessions held so far this season, team mate Valtteri Bottas has qualified lower than 17th only once.
Unlike those lower down than him on this list, Zhou hasn’t had as many truly poor weekends. His Jeddah weekend was by no means good, crashing heavily at turn eight in final practice which effectively put him out of qualifying, before he finished last after taking a gamble on strategy. In Monaco, he was half a second slower than Bottas in qualifying, then allowed himself to get mugged by Logan Sargeant for one of the few overtaking moves of the race.
Zhou Guanyu
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 14 | 20 (x4) |
| GP finish | 11 | 19 |
| Points | 0 | |
His Montreal weekend was worse. He had another meeting with the wall in practice before a second spin at turn two ended his final practice session. After being eliminated slowest in Q1, again, he was the only car to finish a lap down in the grand prix – but at least he reached the chequered flag, unlike Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz Jnr.
Zhou has been able to put together decent weekends too. Perhaps his best came at the opening round of the season in Bahrain where he rose up from 17th on the grid to only just miss out on a point in 11th place. He also flew under the radar in Miami, where he finished 11th in the sprint race and gained five positions in the grand prix to finish 14th, two places ahead of his team mate. His Spanish Grand…
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