NOT YOUR AVERAGE ZHOU

Since Alfa Romeo did away with both drivers – the laconic Kimi Raikkonen called it a day and Antonio Giovinazzi has been let go – Valtteri Bottas partners the incoming Guanyu Zhou, fresh from his third and final Formula 2 campaign. In the process, Zhou will become the first Chinese driver to participate in an F1 race, a lucrative bargaining chip that the championship’s figureheads have been after for years.

And sure, Zhou owes a lot of his burgeoning F1 career to its commercial interests, but that does him a great disservice. Oscar Piastri swept to the F2 title, but Alpine has seen fit to keep him on a very tight leash and prepare him for a future stab at F1 in-house, rather than farming him out elsewhere. Zhou, meanwhile, proved a much more flexible suitor for Alfa to bring in – he’s quick, he’s got money, and can be a short-to-mediumterm option for the Hinwil team, depending on the progress of its F2 junior driver Theo Pourchaire.

Zhou will be the only rookie kicking off in 2022 (barring any mid-season replacements), which underlines the difficulty in breaking into the top level of international single-seater racing without considerable support. But he’s earned his chance and, since 2022’s cars will be a new challenge for the whole grid, he’ll make his debut on a marginally more even playing field.