Zhou Guanyu finished a distant 14th in last year’s Chinese Grand Prix, but Formula 1 highlighted his achievement as if he’d won the championship.
The Sauber driver was given a dedicated spot on the grid to park on after the race so he could celebrate with his home fans. The justification for this peculiar moment was that Zhou had just become the first of China’s 1.4 billion citizens to compete in an F1 race before their home crowd.
Surely someone at F1 reckoned there was a good chance it would also be the last home appearance for a Chinese driver for several years. Zhou hadn’t set the world alight in his previous two seasons at Sauber, and he duly lost his drive at the end of the year.
That was one half of a double blow for Liberty Media. China is one of two nations it is especially keen to do business in, but both it and the other – America – lost their representatives on the grid during last year.
When last season began, the presence of Zhou and Logan Sargeant ensured Liberty’s two priority markets each had a face on the grid. That is no longer the case, and moreover, F1’s 2025 grid has become conspicuously less diverse in terms of nationalities during the off-season.
Of course the kind of long-term, dedicated F1 fans who read RaceFans are less likely to be drawn to the sport through shared nationality with a driver or team. But it does help pull new viewers in, and that is Liberty’s priority.
Simply put, more nationalities represented on the grid means more obvious points of contact for potential new fans. But while 15 different countries were represented on the grid at the start of last year, that has fallen to 13 this season, the lowest in five years.
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Arguably, that figure could be regarded as even lower. Four drivers have British licences but Alexander Albon, who raced under a Thai licence, has dual Thai-British nationality, was born in London and schooled in Britain. Classifying him as British would make this the least diverse grid at the start of a season since 2013.
How has the United Kingdom, home to 68.3 million people, come to account for one-quarter of the F1 grid? This is clearly not just a matter of driving ability, but also the superior opportunities available for aspiring racing drivers in Britain. As 70% of current F1 teams have at least part of their base in…
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