{"id":17810,"date":"2024-01-02T10:43:13","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T15:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=17810"},"modified":"2024-01-02T10:49:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T15:49:38","slug":"zhou-guanyu-offers-savage-response-to-f1-speculation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/01\/02\/zhou-guanyu-offers-savage-response-to-f1-speculation\/","title":{"rendered":"Zhou Guanyu offers savage response to F1 speculation"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Zhou Guanyu will be heavily involved in this year&#8217;s transfer market, but the Chinese driver is unphased by F1 news headlines.<\/h3>\n<p>The 24-year-old enters his third year in Formula 1, and one which could prove pivotal for his career. With several youngsters in Formula 2 expected to make breakthroughs, teams will have several options available to them.<\/p>\n<p>To ensure he keeps his place <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/01\/01\/f1-news-sauber-reveal-new-name-for-2024\/\" target=\"_self\">in the team,<\/a> Zhou must compete at a similar level to Valtteri Bottas. This is no easy feat, but the former Alpine junior cannot afford to stay in his teammate&#8217;s shadow.<\/p>\n<p>After all, this season&#8217;s &#8220;silly season&#8221; is set to be volatile and unpredictable.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"aRRYmaR4Rr96Lk4IO2ff4w\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1765394949\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'aRRYmaR4Rr96Lk4IO2ff4w',sig:'_VaD-Iq3VaRh8Dj9r9vuiZLezoN00lgfM2iQT5T1E70=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1765394949',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Still, rumours and F1 news headlines will inevitably go through the motions. Aware of this reality, Zhou is unconcerned by reports about his future:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;I don&#8217;t give a s*** about it, to be honest! It&#8217;s like all the other crazy stuff when I first signed my contract,&#8221; he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/f1\/news\/zhou-doesnt-give-a-shit-about-crazy-f1-future-rumours\/10561206\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Autosport.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I was like, &#8216;I will just let it flow. I will make sure I do the talking on track &#8211; making sure people respect why I&#8217;m here&#8217;.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Everything&#8217;s been good since then.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Zhou is referring to the hostility he received in late 2021, when his contract with Alfa Romeo was first announced.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, there was outrage that Zhou earned an F1 contract before Oscar Piastri. Although the Australian wasn&#8217;t in any way affiliated with Sauber, the Chinese driver still received plenty of criticism.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"MYSczauhQk9sqnyO3qBePw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1488029211\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'MYSczauhQk9sqnyO3qBePw',sig:'kVHk5gDuFJZpFKMjusGq8qrat8C9kKKWKB3WeLn3Sxc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1488029211',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This narrative changed almost entirely after his debut &#8211; when Zhou earned points in Bahrain.<\/p>\n<p>His reputation steadily improved as his rookie year continued, holding his own against Valtteri Bottas in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n<p>However, his 2023 campaign wasn&#8217;t as well received. This was partly because of Sauber&#8217;s below-par performance, which meant points results were difficult to come by.<\/p>\n<p>Although he still earned a contract extension last summer, his future isn&#8217;t guaranteed beyond this year. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/12\/22\/f1-news-nico-hulkenberg-open-to-sauber-move-after-2024\/\" target=\"_self\">Nico Hulkenberg is confirmed<\/a> to have spoken with Sauber last summer.<\/p>\n<p>It seems reasonable this interest might persist later in the year.<\/p>\n<p>More broadly, Audi&#8217;s takeover in 2026 creates questions about the direction of their driver line-up. This puts both Zhou and Bottas under pressure to improve their chances both within and beyond the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zhou Guanyu will be heavily involved in this year&#8217;s transfer market, but the Chinese driver is unphased by F1 news headlines. The 24-year-old enters his third year in Formula 1, and one which could prove pivotal for his career. With several youngsters in Formula 2 expected to make breakthroughs, teams will have several options available [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":15517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,68,23,1688],"class_list":["post-17810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-zhou-guanyu"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}