Formula One: China’s Zhou Guanyu joins Ferrari as reserve driver for 2025 season
The 25-year-old will split the role of supporting Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc with Italian Antonio Giovinazzi
Zhou Guanyu’s Formula One career has come full circle, with the Chinese driver returning to Ferrari as a reserve driver for the 2025 season.
A product of the Scuderia’s driver academy, where he spent four seasons, Zhou will join Antonio Giovinazzi at the Italian team. The pair will split the role, with Giovinazzi staying in a position he has occupied since 2017.
Zhou, who was the first Chinese driver to compete in Formula One on a full-time basis, left Sauber at the end of 2024, having spent three years with the Swiss-based team.
He raced under the Alfa Romeo banner in 2022 and 2023, and has reunited at Ferrari with team principal Frédéric Vasser, who held the same role at Sauber and gave Zhou his first drive in F1.
In a social media post, the 25-year-old Zhou said he was going “back to where it started”.
“Thanks Ferrari for believing in me & can’t wait to start this new chapter together,” he wrote, along with a big smiling emoji.