Zhou Guanyu on why he has ‘high trust’ in Cadillac project and how he became a ‘better driver’ at Ferrari

Zhou Guanyu is the latest familiar name to join the Cadillac Formula 1 team, with the Chinese racer having been announced as the squad’s reserve driver for 2026, forming part of a wider line-up that features Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez on the race team and former IndyCar racer Colton Herta as a test driver.

While Zhou is no stranger to the reserve role – having acted in this position for Ferrari in 2025 – the year ahead will provide a wholly new challenge for the 26-year-old as he prepares to provide crucial support work to a brand-new team, in a season that will also feature new technical regulations.

‘New’ might be a term that cropped up a lot there, but the project is one that also brings with it a lot of familiarity for Zhou, a factor that he admits was part of the appeal as he discusses his Cadillac move with F1.com.

“Firstly, I’m really excited for this new project,” the driver from Shanghai – who spent three years on the grid with the Alfa Romeo/Kick Sauber team between 2022 and 2024 – explains.

“The main thing is that with this new team, I know for example Graeme [Lowdon], Valtteri and also a lot of engineers that work in the team and, over the course of this year, I’ve seen how the team was setting up and I really felt the future is bright.

“They’re not setting up a team just to be on the grid – they’re setting up a team trying to compete. They have a mission target, to try to achieve over the years, and to bring Cadillac to a top midfield team and so on onwards, so that’s what really attracted me.

“On the other side, I think the team [saw] what I was able to do over the course of last year and what my role was, and I think it can really benefit both sides.

“So to be the team’s only reserve driver, I feel like this is the best opportunity for me in order to be back behind the wheel, and at the same time I think what I am capable of bringing [in terms of] information and, together with two very experienced drivers, it just brings the team forward.

“This year is a massive rule change, so all this knowledge, experience we’ve had over the years, this can be a help if you’re comparing to a less experienced driver.”

Having ‘high trust’ in the Cadillac project

Indeed, Zhou described the feeling of joining the team as being like “rejoining family” in the announcement of his signing, with Team Principal Lowdon having long acted as part of his management team while Bottas was the Chinese driver’s team mate throughout his time on the grid. It is the involvement of such experienced names that added further to his interest in the project.

“We spoke a lot,” Zhou says of his relationship with Bottas. “We spent a lot of time [together], even when we were in different teams over the course of last year, so the three years I spent [in F1 were] really together with Valtteri.

“But at the same time I always worked together with Graeme, and that’s really what brings me the high trust over this project. I haven’t worked with Checo before – I know he’s a great driver.

“But the three of us were always very honest people, and also we’re very transparent with what’s going on behind the scenes. So when you come into a massive chapter change over the rules, that’s what you really need.

“You need a team that can drive forward all together, rather than just focusing on an individual side of the garage for the, let’s say, single benefits and results. All that is really important.

“And as well, it’s a new team, so it just puts extra energy on it because you start from scratch. For me, it’s also a brand-new experience I’ve never been [in] before. I’m excited for what’s coming ahead, and looking forward to going back in the Charlotte factory, spend some simulator time, and also at Silverstone with all the engineers.”

Learning from time with Ferrari

After losing his spot on the grid with Kick Sauber at the end of 2024, Zhou returned to Ferrari – where he had previously been a member of the Driver Academy – in the role of reserve driver, working alongside race drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

With the Scuderia providing Cadillac with their power unit and gearbox in 2026, Zhou believes that his experience of working with the Italian outfit will be beneficial, along with the fact that he previously raced with Ferrari engines during his time with Alfa Romeo/Kick Sauber.

“Since this new era of Formula 1 introduced in 2022, I was only driving with Ferrari engines, which I got really used to, and also while I was testing development for Ferrari last season, I was also trying their 2026 engines, so all these things come into play together,” he explains.

“I have a very precise idea and a feeling with feedback on how the engine, power unit, gearbox, everything works, and also the hydraulic system. When you change from engine to engine, that’s also one of the biggest things you need to adapt as a driver, because the way you downshift, the way you drive, the driving style, it’s going to be changing.

“You need to adapt, which, for me, I will be already up to date. I’m looking forward to seeing what is the biggest difference this year, because it’s going to be a big change. Even though we are a Ferrari power unit, I think every single manufacturer is going to develop over the years, so that’s going to be very important.

“I think this year is not about who can start on top; it’s all about, throughout the season, who can put the most efficient hours in terms of wind tunnel development and to have the most efficient benefits on the aerodynamics or improvements throughout the season.

“So that’s what I’m looking forward to, and also I don’t feel that I’m joining somewhere where everything I need to adapt to. I have the people I worked with, the engine the same and also, like I’ve mentioned, many staff and engineers I worked with over the course of the years. Everything just feels already like I’m familiar with everyone.”

Zhou also believes that joining Ferrari from Kick Sauber helped him to “learn a lot” and develop as a driver, explaining: “The decision made last year [to join Ferrari] was because I can learn so much from them.

“For me, in 2024 I was fighting at the bottom of the field, and then when you’re arriving into a top field team, you can see what they’re doing as a team differently compared to what has been in the past.

“It’s not just how drivers react over the weekend, it’s also the way you are setting up the team, the way the constructor works in the factory, and all the little details really matter. So that’s what I really learned, and I see the massive difference since day one I joined them. Now I’m understanding what it takes to be getting a team up to speed of fighting at the top, for winning victories or [becoming a] top midfield team.

“That’s very important, useful information, and I really enjoyed my time in 2025, that’s for sure, because this is a year I learned so much from the team side, but also from the driver’s side.”

The challenges of becoming a reserve driver and future goals

On the flip side of this, Zhou acknowledges that making the switch from being a full-time F1 driver to a reserve was not always the easiest adjustment.

“It’s challenging in terms of the mental side, just because you’re watching all the people that are racing, and some of them you have battled with or you’ve beaten them throughout the years,” he concedes.

“You want to be there, and you feel like you deserve to be on the grid fighting with them together. So that’s probably the hard side, on the mental side, and when you’re just watching the race.

“Then on the other side, I don’t feel it’s such a bad position, because while I was able to take a step down from a race seat over the 2025 season, I really felt the stuff I wasn’t on the top performance level of, the stuff I would do differently if I go back on the grid again in the future.

“When you’re outside, you can just see a clearer picture of how you should develop, because you learn from both sides of the garage. Especially over the last year, I was able to be around two of the top drivers on the grid, to see what they’re doing, and when they struggle or what they do well, what they’ve done differently, how they adapt, react.

“All these things I’m taking into consideration, and I feel like it made me a better driver already. I’m just looking forward for the season coming together, but then also hopefully my ultimate goal is to be back on the grid, back behind the wheel, racing full-time.”

That goal of a comeback evidently remains on Zhou’s mind, but he admits that this is not a target that he is rushing ahead with as he focuses on his current journey with Cadillac.

“I think generally it’s not something I will think about every single week or monthly,” he explains. “While you are at the beginning of the season, you are just focused on the commitment you have, and my current commitment is with the completely new journey with the Cadillac F1 team.

“For me, I think the ultimate goal is to be back on the grid, and that’s the target. But in terms to achieve the target, sometimes you need a bit of a waiting game. You need to show the team what you can do over the course of the weeks, months, putting the effort in, and sometimes the opportunity appears, so I’m not fully rushing on that.

“Right now, I’m actually looking forward to the next few weeks, few months, before the season.

“Normally the period [for thinking about the future] is a couple of weeks before the summer shutdown. That’s where you have to start talking about the future, so right now I’m just trying to take my [focus] into the team and then try to build on that.”

How Cadillac are approaching 2026

Lowdon has reiterated that Cadillac’s target entering into their maiden campaign is to “execute as well as we possibly can and gain respect from the other competitors”, and Zhou echoes these sentiments amid a season that poses unknowns over the pecking order.

“I think when you have a new team, you can’t say that when you get to F1 for the first race, you’re going to be on top or you’re going to be fighting for a top 10 easily,” the team’s new reserve driver explains.

“It’s about building on that. Many midfield teams started from scratch and they had to build on it, and it’s all about getting the right people and putting the team in the right place, not rushing everything. I think on that side Graeme is doing a fantastic job.

“Who knows [what will happen] – it’s a question mark at the end of the day, because everything is so different with the regulations for this season, so you have no expectation for any teams. But what I can say is that how this team is looking over the course of the last few weeks and months, it’s definitely in the right direction in order to make the team a lot stronger and better.”

There is little time to spare before some of those questions perhaps start to be answered, with three pre-season tests soon to take place before the campaign kicks off with the Australian Grand Prix on March 6-8.

The work begins now, then, for Zhou, as he gives an insight into what his first few weeks with the team will look like.

“There will be simulator [work] going on,” he smiles. “I’ll be finally meeting up with all the staff members in the team after this announcement. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time now – I’m, let’s say, released in terms of I can just go there, start putting the hard work in, starting all the season from now.

“I’ll be very soon back in the factory, in the simulator, trying to give an idea how I feel and the comparison to all the recent and all the past experiences [I’ve had]. I’m looking forward to trying that and to meeting some new faces, some familiar faces, so everything will start very soon.”