Ferrari<\/a> in widening his skillset will stand to him when opportunities arise.<\/p>\n\u201cI think it\u2019s very important to work with different people, different teams, so they understand your abilities,\u201d Zhou told PlanetF1.com in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came here [to Ferrari], a lot of people didn\u2019t know the driver I was, and the engineers are quite positive with all the feedback and the stuff I was able to bring, feedback with data, analysing, all of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important just to stay in the paddock, but let more people understand the driver you are, because sometimes when you obviously stay in the same team for three years, coming straight from F2, probably only the people working with you understand how you are, but then you need to kind of let the whole paddock understand, to give you a big opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m here for. I still feel like there are opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re speaking to people, and we\u2019re trying to understand what are the opportunities. I\u2019m focused on the role I\u2019m doing with Ferrari, but then it\u2019s just to let other people understand the door is always open when they need me, and that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I think this year or next year are the big two years, especially next year, when there\u2019s new regulation changes. But then there are a lot of drivers that will be a question mark for their future as well. So that\u2019s where I think the opportunities will come.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut right now, I\u2019m just happy where I am. Obviously, I would love to be back on the grid for next year. But, if not, I will just continue waiting for another year and see what happens.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople know what I can do. Certain things didn\u2019t go to plan for the seat I was probably fighting for. But then, in general, I think people understand what I can do and understand I\u2019m available. Different teams want a different kind of driver for them, and it\u2019s not up to me who can decide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of reserve drivers, or there are drivers available for each programme, so it\u2019s up to them who they choose. But for me, I\u2019m just together with the Ferrari team, and understanding if there are any opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zhou Guanyu: 2026 experience and \u2018unfinished business\u2019<\/p>\n
Through his work with Ferrari,\u00a0 Zhou has spent plenty of time in the simulator driving the 2026 iteration of the car, allowing him the opportunity to get to grips with an ever-evolving driving model for the new regulation set.<\/p>\n
Alongside that, Zhou has kept his driving sharp by carrying out a Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) programme with Ferrari, in which he has been let loose in the SF-23, as well as carrying out a Pirelli test in the SF-25 in June.<\/p>\n
This relevant knowledge and experience with the new regulations means he\u2019s feeling sharp and ready if an opportunity does arise for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cTPC is very important, and I think you learn a lot through TPC,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause when you are just driving the simulator at the beginning but then, until you jump in the car, you don\u2019t understand what\u2019s different.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery team has probably a different percentage of difference between the real car and the simulator. Where I feel like, here now, we\u2019re already building up from the beginning of the year to now being a step up simulation wise, it\u2019s been good, and I\u2019m quite happy with the feedback I was able to get between the sim and car testing for \u201926.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started already, I think, in the first week of March, I was starting doing \u201926 cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doing multiple sessions every month, every week so it\u2019s good for that, because you understand the regulations first and how the car is, and you understand what you need to make the car go faster in next two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zhou also pointed to how the stability of working at Ferrari is in stark contrast to his time at Sauber, where he felt he\u2019d hit a \u201cbrick wall\u201d as constant changes in personnel deflected from his comfort behind the wheel.<\/p>\n
With no obvious route back onto the grid at present, Zhou said he doesn\u2019t feel his three years at Sauber are quite enough for him, and that he would embrace another opportunity to showcase how he\u2019s grown as a driver. It\u2019s left him with unfinished business in F1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy I was able to already complete three season in Formula 1,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019m not so happy with how, the last year, I\u2019ve been pretty much treated from that perspective, because, obviously, I think there were too many changes in the background, and that doesn\u2019t really give me that opportunity to be able to control my crew and my people.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople floating around and making changes like a race engineer, which really makes the difference. The first year was good, and the car was competitive.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then there were a lot of technical issues on my side with the cooling system. Second year together, it was a very decent year. I think every year I was catching up the points difference together with Valtteri. He is very good, especially in one lap pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned a lot. I improved a lot. But just, the last year, even though I scored only points, I just feel like the season with the car we had, it was just so difficult to do anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to have another opportunity in a season that I can definitely put things around me a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read Next:\u00a0Is Lando Norris in the box seat for the title? Brazil might hold the key<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a year on the sidelines, Zhou Guanyu has vowed his quest to return to the F1 grid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,826,813,816,818,44,17165,85,95269],"class_list":["post-250539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-sports","tag-zhou-guanyu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}