{"id":27794,"date":"2024-12-06T06:05:13","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T11:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=27794"},"modified":"2024-12-06T06:13:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T11:13:33","slug":"zhou-guanyu-cadillac-f1-becoming-a-viable-destination-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/06\/zhou-guanyu-cadillac-f1-becoming-a-viable-destination-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Zhou Guanyu: Cadillac F1 becoming a viable destination for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

After claiming an impressive P8 in Qatar, Zhou Guanyu made clear is target is to make an F1 comeback. As reported previously by LWOS, Cadillac F1 is becoming a realistic destination for Zhou<\/a> in 2026.<\/p>\n

Why Zhou is a candidate to join Cadillac in 2026<\/h2>\n

General Motors’ F1 entry, which will be called Cadillac F1, is set to make its debut in 2026.<\/p>\n

The American team has already established the driver profiles they want for their line-up.<\/p>\n

As revealed by Mario Andretti<\/a>, who be Cadillac’s director of the board, the team aim to have one American driver. Colton Herta<\/a> is a leading candidate, albeit at this very early stage.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the garage, a driver with F1 experience is the preference.<\/p>\n

With three years of Formula 1 under his belt, Zhou is among the free agents who meet this criteria.<\/p>\n

His speed and consistency also make him well-suited to a new team working to establish themselves on the grid.<\/p>\n

However, another factor should boost the Sauber<\/a> driver’s chances. Graeme Lowdon has been announced as Cadillac F1’s team principal.<\/p>\n

The former team principal at Marussia will oversee the American squad in this critical phase of their F1 journey.<\/p>\n

Crucially, Lowdon was previously part of Zhou Guanyu’s management team.<\/p>\n

For a driver who already meets Cadillac’s criteria, Lowdon’s arrival can only be seen as a positive.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Zhou Guanyu, KICK Sauber F1 Team C44, leads Valtteri Bottas, KICK Sauber F1 Team C44; 2024 Qatar Grand Prix, Formula One World Championship<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other drivers also in contention<\/h4>\n

To be clear, it would be premature to suggest the Chinese driver will secure a place with the US team.<\/p>\n

It won’t be for another year and three months that Cadillac make their F1 debut. A lot of things can change during this time, including the drivers available in the market.<\/p>\n

The likes of Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen will likely be on the team’s radar heading into 2026.<\/p>\n

Another key issue is Colton Herta’s Super License. The American driver needs to finish in the top 4 of IndyCar to secure the necessary FIA Super License points to race in Formula 1.<\/p>\n

A lack of Super License points cost Herta an opportunity to join VCARB for the 2023 season.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, there are still plenty of unknowns about Cadillac’s driver shortlist. Zhou can expect to be at the negotiating table, but he will be joined by many others also working to secure a deal.<\/p>\n

In the immediate future, Zhou’s priority is to secure a reserve driver deal for 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Multiple teams have already expressed interest, giving the 25-year-old a chance to stay active in the paddock when next year’s driver market kicks into gear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After claiming an impressive P8 in Qatar, Zhou Guanyu made clear is target is to make an F1 comeback. As reported previously by LWOS, Cadillac F1 is becoming a realistic destination for Zhou in 2026. Why Zhou is a candidate to join Cadillac in 2026 General Motors’ F1 entry, which will be called Cadillac F1, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":27795,"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":[2220,1986,465,345],"class_list":["post-27794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-cadillac","tag-f1-news","tag-sauber"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27794","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=27794"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27907,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27794\/revisions\/27907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}