{"id":22948,"date":"2024-08-13T08:15:52","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T12:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=22948"},"modified":"2024-08-13T08:15:52","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T12:15:52","slug":"zhou-guanyu-reveals-2025-f1-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/13\/zhou-guanyu-reveals-2025-f1-chances\/","title":{"rendered":"Zhou Guanyu reveals 2025 F1 chances"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Much like teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/12\/bottas-admits-contract-renewal-will-be-complicated\/\" target=\"_self\">Valtteri Bottas<\/a>, Zhou Guanyu has had a tricky few months. Not only are Sauber struggling for results, but seats are running out on the 2025 grid. Zhou is among the drivers without a contract for next season and fighting to stay in F1. Although his options appear limited, the 25-year-old is optimistic about the future.<\/p>\n<h2>Sauber and Alpine are the last options<\/h2>\n<p>At various stages this season, Zhou has been linked to different midfield outfits. Of most relevance are <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/12\/f1-news-alpine-struggles-could-persist-for-several-years\/\" target=\"_self\">Alpine<\/a> and Sauber, the two teams representing the most realistic paths forward for the Chinese driver.<\/p>\n<p>Sauber remains undecided on their driver line-up for next year, even after several months of deliberation.<\/p>\n<p>After missing out on their ideal targets (<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/07\/williams-carlos-sainz-will-bring-pressure-in-a-good-way\/\" target=\"_self\">Sainz<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/07\/16\/esteban-ocon-set-to-join-haas-in-2025\/\" target=\"_self\">Ocon<\/a>), the Hinwil operation is taking its time before making any commitments for 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The arrivals of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/07\/23\/mattia-binotto-makes-f1-return-with-audi\/\" target=\"_self\">Mattia Binotto<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/01\/audi-appoint-jonathan-wheatley-as-team-principal\/\" target=\"_self\">Jonathan Wheatley<\/a> inevitably add a new element of uncertainty about the team&#8217;s future direction.<\/p>\n<p>However, regardless of Audi&#8217;s new leadership, Zhou Guanyu is not seen as a favourite to earn a new contract.<\/p>\n<p>With Bottas regularly outperforming him (and the Finn himself not a front-runner to earn an extension), his chances appear slim.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, Alpine are expected to sign <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/07\/31\/jack-doohan-leading-contender-to-join-alpine-in-2025\/\" target=\"_self\">Jack Doohan<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It is worth mentioning that Zhou has been occasionally linked to the French outfit, having been in Alpine&#8217;s academy before joining Sauber in F1.<\/p>\n<p>Still, these reports from several months ago have not gone beyond tentative whispers. In this sense, there is nothing concrete.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"5NCW0XpoROtPLoePITp1HQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2162292658\" 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:'5NCW0XpoROtPLoePITp1HQ',sig:'b2lcf5v7zUw6UuCNDWf5F2azK3DqX88rcgQpaxrKeR8=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2162292658',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Zhou discusses 2025 chances<\/h3>\n<p>The one positive for Zhou, like the other drivers without 2025 contracts, is that time hasn&#8217;t run out.<\/p>\n<p>Contract talks are still taking place behind the scenes and will likely continue until after the summer break.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.the-race.com\/formula-1\/suffering-f1-driver-zhou-guanyu-interview-future-slump-racist-abuse\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Race<\/a>, Zhou spoke honestly about the future:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I want to stay in this championship. That&#8217;s what I want to do.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But in terms of what I do, if I become a third driver, I haven&#8217;t thought about it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;My mindset is on getting a seat because there\u2019s still, I would say, a chance of 50% or more that I get a seat.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old&#8217;s assessment is more optimistic than what many would provide, especially with Jack Doohan seen as the favourite to join Alpine next year.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of whether Zhou has access to information unknown to the general public, his future remains uncertain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Much like teammate Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu has had a tricky few months. Not only are Sauber struggling for results, but seats are running out on the 2025 grid. Zhou is among the drivers without a contract for next season and fighting to stay in F1. Although his options appear limited, the 25-year-old is optimistic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":19778,"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":[2220,206,68,345,1688],"class_list":["post-22948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-audi","tag-f1","tag-sauber","tag-zhou-guanyu"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22948","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=22948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}