{"id":23744,"date":"2024-08-30T13:45:29","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T17:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=23744"},"modified":"2024-08-30T14:02:36","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T18:02:36","slug":"zhou-guanyu-expected-to-miss-out-on-2025-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/30\/zhou-guanyu-expected-to-miss-out-on-2025-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Zhou Guanyu expected to miss out on 2025 seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After a promising rookie season and a reasonable 2023 campaign, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/07\/15\/zhou-guanyu-running-out-of-options-for-2025\/\" target=\"_self\">Zhou Guanyu<\/a> has struggled this year. He has failed to match the efforts of teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/29\/valtteri-bottas-could-lose-final-f1-lifeline\/\" target=\"_self\">Valtteri Bottas<\/a> this season, especially in qualifying. Unless there is a dramatic change of events, Zhou is unlikely to find a place on next year&#8217;s grid.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>F1 News: Zhou unlikely to secure 2025 deal<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h4>Zhou&#8217;s chances fade<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/27\/sauber-crisis-no-matter-the-strategy-we-cant-change-the-result\/\" target=\"_self\">Sauber<\/a> are one of the only teams without a confirmed driver line-up for next year.<\/p>\n<p>Despite announcing the signing of Nico Hulkenberg several months ago, the Swiss-based outfit are yet to decide who will drive alongside him.<\/p>\n<p>In the early stages of the season, it could have been plausibly suggested that Zhou was in contention.<\/p>\n<p>After all, with Sauber&#8217;s initial targets (<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/29\/audi-working-to-reunite-hulkenberg-and-sainz-in-2025\/\" target=\"_self\">Sainz<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/01\/06\/f1-news-esteban-ocon-high-on-sauber-and-audi-shortlist\/\" target=\"_self\">Ocon<\/a>) no longer available, the team could pursue continuity in their line-up.<\/p>\n<p>However, the gap between Zhou and Bottas has widened throughout 2024. Even if the Hinwil-based team retains one of their current drivers, it is understood that Zhou will not be selected.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"hf9jvq-dSWRxBf6oV3J9sA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2169473444\" 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:'hf9jvq-dSWRxBf6oV3J9sA',sig:'WtOVsezSCJdHf1ZWpHKe62Yb3fFGFMJUyPaP238ykkI=',w:'594px',h:'382px',items:'2169473444',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>To his credit, the 25-year-old has delivered a few solid performances this year. His SQ3 performance on home soil in Shanghai is arguably the highlight of his season.<\/p>\n<p>He also produced a very strong drive to finish 11th in Bahrain, narrowly missing out on the points.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for Zhou, these moments are anomalies in what can be described as a disappointing season.<\/p>\n<h4>Bottas and Bortoleto compete for the second seat<\/h4>\n<p>As it stands, two drivers are seen as favourites to secure the second seat at Sauber.<\/p>\n<p>The first is Valtteri Bottas, who has already spoken with newly-appointed CTO Mattia Binotto about the future. Owing to his experience, speed and respectable results in the largely uninspiring C44, Sauber are considering extending his contract.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"-nLIVA94RGNTwcuTPAFpqg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2167498554\" 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:'-nLIVA94RGNTwcuTPAFpqg',sig:'Oem2_qqpafveUg-Tbq0xlLBN5-ay9i7mTerPEbtmiIQ=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2167498554',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>However, a key issue for the Finn could be contract length. Bottas would prefer a multi-year agreement, but as the team continues its transitional phase before officially becoming Audi, committing to the 35-year-old on a long-term deal could be difficult.<\/p>\n<p>If the former Mercedes driver wants to stay on the grid, he will likely have to make compromises in contract negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/02\/bortoleto-emerges-as-shock-contender-to-join-sauber\/\" target=\"_self\">Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> is also on the Hinwil squad&#8217;s radar. The Brazilian driver, who is represented by Fernando Alonso, has potential that Audi could be open to developing.<\/p>\n<p>This is especially true since the team could struggle for performance in 2025 and even 2026.<\/p>\n<p>As seen with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/27\/williams-franco-colapinto-is-best-chance-to-score-points\/\" target=\"_self\">Franco Colapinto&#8217;s<\/a> almost immediate impact on Williams, Bortoleto could facilitate a boost in sponsorship for the team.<\/p>\n<p>To be clear, the team has not made a decision. Still, all indications suggest that Zhou is essentially out of the running for a new deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a promising rookie season and a reasonable 2023 campaign, Zhou Guanyu has struggled this year. He has failed to match the efforts of teammate Valtteri Bottas this season, especially in qualifying. Unless there is a dramatic change of events, Zhou is unlikely to find a place on next year&#8217;s grid. F1 News: Zhou unlikely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":23494,"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":[2,4,3],"tags":[2220,68,465,345,1688],"class_list":["post-23744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-sauber","tag-zhou-guanyu"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23744","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=23744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}