{"id":26822,"date":"2024-11-16T06:55:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T11:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=26822"},"modified":"2024-11-16T06:55:12","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T11:55:12","slug":"f1-news-zhou-guanyu-in-talks-to-become-ferrari-reserve-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/11\/16\/f1-news-zhou-guanyu-in-talks-to-become-ferrari-reserve-driver\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 News: Zhou Guanyu in talks to become Ferrari reserve driver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Having missed out on a full-time contract, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/30\/zhou-guanyu-expected-to-miss-out-on-2025-seat\/\" target=\"_self\">Zhou Guanyu<\/a> is searching for a path to stay in the F1 paddock. According to the latest reports, Zhou is close to becoming Ferrari&#8217;s reserve driver.<\/p>\n<h2>Zhou Guanyu makes his priorities clear<\/h2>\n<p>Although the end of Zhou&#8217;s Sauber spell was confirmed by Gabriel Bortoleto&#8217;s announcement,<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/09\/09\/zhou-guanyu-admits-that-2025-f1-seat-is-unlikely\/\" target=\"_self\"> the consensus for months<\/a> was that his days at Hinwil were numbered.<\/p>\n<p>Bottas and Bortoleto were always the leading contenders to sign a 2025 Sauber contract.<\/p>\n<p>In this context, Zhou has been exploring alternatives for some time. As the 25-year-old explained earlier this year, staying active in the F1 paddock is his priority:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;At the moment, I don\u2019t want to be in other series yet,&#8221; <\/em>he explained in Monza.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>Because I feel like I\u2019m still in a period that if I can stay in F1, or make a comeback if I don\u2019t have a seat.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;There will still be chances to show what I\u2019ve got.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"STi9mx3URRpn7sBV6J5nVw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2181592457\" 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:'STi9mx3URRpn7sBV6J5nVw',sig:'pdPm_OHryHpoy9M600AoqQvqmgGEFK9JEIg_4Kxf6QI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2181592457',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Talks ongoing for Ferrari reserve role<\/h3>\n<p>It is common for drivers who lose their seats to become reserve or third drivers. Zhou&#8217;s teammate, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/11\/10\/valtteri-bottas-inches-closer-to-mercedes-return\/\" target=\"_self\">Valtteri Bottas, is expected to reunite with Mercedes in this role<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, Zhou Guanyu is understood to be negotiating with Ferrari to become their reserve driver from 2025.<\/p>\n<p>A new report from <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.corriere.it\/sport\/formula-1\/24_novembre_16\/charles-leclerc-fratello-arthur-ferrari-abu-dhabi-fd116c2f-9c6a-4f8e-8e42-c417d8684xlk.shtml?refresh_ce\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Corriere.it<\/a> reveals that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/09\/06\/fred-vasseur-ferrari-should-perform-well-at-next-races\/\" target=\"_self\">Fred Vasseur&#8217;s team<\/a> could welcome the Chinese driver into their ranks next season.<\/p>\n<p>Considering that it was Fred Vasseur who signed Zhou to Sauber in 2022, there is already a strong platform for negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>Even as securing a Sauber contract extension became increasingly unlikely, Zhou was confident that other options were at his disposal.<\/p>\n<p>In this sense, it is not a complete surprise there is clear path forward has been established.<\/p>\n<p>Becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/11\/13\/charles-leclerc-i-am-sure-ferrari-will-be-next-world-champions\/\" target=\"_self\">Ferrari<\/a> driver is an attractive alternative, especially in a role where the 25-year-old can contribute to simulator and development work.<\/p>\n<p>Though nothing is confirmed at this stage, talks between Zhou Guanyu and the Scuderia are worth following in the coming weeks and months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having missed out on a full-time contract, Zhou Guanyu is searching for a path to stay in the F1 paddock. According to the latest reports, Zhou is close to becoming Ferrari&#8217;s reserve driver. Zhou Guanyu makes his priorities clear Although the end of Zhou&#8217;s Sauber spell was confirmed by Gabriel Bortoleto&#8217;s announcement, the consensus for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":26823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":[2220,465,84,2331],"class_list":["post-26822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1-news","tag-ferrari","tag-zhou"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26822","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=26822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}