Chinese
Guanyu Zhou is a Chinese racing driver who became China's first full-time Formula 1 driver. Before reaching F1 with Alfa Romeo in 2022, he built his reputation across three seasons in the FIA Formula 2 Championship with UNI-Virtuosi Racing (2019–2021).
Formula 2
Zhou stepped up to F2 in 2019 as part of the Renault (later Alpine) academy, partnering Luca Ghiotto at UNI-Virtuosi. He impressed immediately, taking five podiums and a feature-race pole at Silverstone to finish seventh overall and claim the inaugural Anthoine Hubert Award as the championship's top rookie.
In 2020, alongside Ferrari junior Callum Ilott, Zhou took his maiden F2 win at Sochi and added six podiums on his way to sixth in the standings. His breakthrough campaign came in 2021, partnering Felipe Drugovich: Zhou took pole and the feature-race win in the Bahrain opener, won again in the Monaco sprint, and racked up consistent results to finish third in the championship behind Oscar Piastri and Robert Shwartzman — his best F2 finish and the platform that secured his Formula 1 graduation.
Zhou went on to race in Formula 1 from 2022, but his F2 trajectory — rookie of the year, then steady improvement to a championship podium — defined him as one of the most rounded products of the modern feeder ladder.