Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, April 13 issue: China’s racing driver Zhou Guanyu F1 dreamway
Xinhua News Agency reporter Michael batworth
F1 Shanghai station competition this weekend is in full swing. There are still no Chinese players participating in this competition, however, the 19-year-old racing driver Zhou Guanyu seems to be able to end this trend. This year, he just “promoted” to the F2 race, while the F2 race is only one step away from the F1 race.
Zhou Guanyu was originally the racing driver of Ferrari Driver Academy. In January this year, he signed a contract with Renault sports academy to become the development driver of Renault F1 team and participate in F2 competition at the same time. As a result, he became the first driver in China to sign F1 team.
He interpreted the transfer to France as “an important decision made at the end of last season”, adding that Renault would give him more opportunities to help him enter F1 race.
Zhou Guanyu said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua news agency: “I am definitely closer to F1 now. Besides participating in F2 this year, Renault gave me more opportunities to drive F1 racing cars, testing projects for the team will also help me grow. Because of the close cooperation with F1 team, a lot of information can be shared before the race.”
As many of the world’s top racing teams are in Britain, English is becoming more and more important in international racing. Zhou Guanyu went to England at the age of 12 to pursue his dream. He told reporters that after arriving in Britain, he overcame many difficulties when he was young.
“The top racing driver are all in England. I went to England to learn from the best young racing driver.” This is his determination. “I can only speak a little English, which is a big problem-especially I have to adapt to two completely different lifestyles in Europe and Asia. Of course, language ability must be improved so as to communicate with others.”
“I have to take the exam at school. It is really difficult not to get too bad. I only spend a lot of time with the team. They are all British, so I can maintain a normal lifestyle and improve my English at the same time.”
In the past ten years, Zhou Guanyu has run some world famous tracks, but he thinks the most challenging one is a Chinese track. He said: “The Macau track has the most difficult track layout in the world, and other tracks cannot be compared. Lewis Hamilton also thinks so. It is difficult to say it not because there are too many curb, but because it is basically all obstacles and walls, and no mistakes can be racing driver.”
Although he is a native of Shanghai, the 19-year-old racing driver has never competed on the Shanghai track, which makes him feel strange. “I really haven’t run this track! In China, I only ran the kart track, which was my competition. In addition, all the competitions I participated in were in Europe.”
Although he has been away from home for many years, Zhou Guanyu is very proud of being a Chinese, so it is of far-reaching significance for him to become the first F1 racing driver in China.
He said: “My dream is to race in F1. Considering my racing career along the way, if I can race in F1, it must be a glorious moment for me, and it can also promote the rapid development of Chinese racing.” (Finished)