Pride and hype build as Zhou desperate to put on a show for return of F1

Two years ago the Shanghai International Circuit hosted a Covid hospital, but this weekend it will stage Formula One once more as the sport returns to China for the first time since the pandemic.

Adding to excitement for fans, they will see Shanghai native Zhou Guanyu drive at his home track in F1 for the first time. “I’m extremely excited, in these 5,000 years of [Chinese] history there has only been one Zhou Guanyu,” fan Wang Xiaotian said.

Shanghai last witnessed an F1 race in 2019, before Covid and China’s travel restrictions put a halt to almost all major international sport in the country.

Tickets for the action-packed Formula One weekend – which begins with Friday morning practice, includes a sprint race on Saturday and ends with the grand prix on Sunday – sold out within minutes in January.

Ma Qinghua, the first Chinese to drive an F1 car when he took part in a 2012 practice session at the Italian Grand Prix, said the sport’s return would have a “very good impact”, especially on younger fans who did not have the chance to see their heroes in the flesh during the pandemic.

“This group of people are very much anticipating the chance to witness a race personally,” Ma, a pioneer of China’s motorsport industry, said.

It was almost two years ago, at the height of the city’s lockdown, that the Shanghai circuit became the site of a makeshift 13,000-bed Covid hospital. That was just a few weeks after Zhou had his first grand prix drive in Bahrain, finishing 10th to score a point, but the pandemic delayed 24-yearold Zhou’s home F1 debut until this week.

Even though he is unlikely to challenge for the podium, Zhou is desperate to put on a Shanghai show. “I can’t wait to give it my all, share the passion with our entire team trackside and at home, and start a new chapter of Chinese motorsport together with the crowd,” Zhou said.

Underlining the hype surrounding Zhou, who is in his third F1 season, fans greeted him at the airport when he arrived last week and a documentary about the racer, The First One, will hit Chinese cinemas this weekend to coincide with the race.

Ma has witnessed the growth in motorsport first hand, and said it was “a lot more popular now, adding that, when he started, “I didn’t even know where I could do a test or that there was such a thing as a racing licence”.

The 36-year-old’s F1 adventure did not go any further with the now-disbanded HRT team because of contract issues, he said, but he drove in other classes such as Formula E and the World Touring Car Championship.

Now, Ma runs a go-kart venue in Shanghai where aspiring speed demons zoom down a looping two-storey track tucked into the basement of a mall.

Formula E will also return to China next month, with Shanghai hosting it for the first time.*