Zhou Guanyu on bouncing back from his horror F1 crash and proving his critics wrong - EXCLUSIVE
F1 2022’s sole rookie suffered a monster shunt on the opening lap of July’s British Grand Prix when his Alfa Romeo was sent airborne after being sandwiched between 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Pierre Gasly and168澳洲5最新开奖结果: George Russell.
Zhou’s car flipped upside down, skated along the tarmac and gravel, before being violently launched into the barrier൲s and catch-fencing.
Remarkably, Zhou, who168澳洲5最新开奖结果: feared his car would catch fire with him trapped inside, was able to walk away from the sickening 160mph smash unhar✱⛦med.
The 23-year-old paid tribute to the Halo cockpit protection device and said h🌄e found it hard to believe he surviveꦜd the incident.
“It’s pretty much behind me,” Zhou told wuqian0821.com in an exclusive interview ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. “Obviously what happened was not something I wanted, but at least I walked𓃲 out completely fine from it.
"It was quite good having a race weekend straight after it so that I didn’t have time to really think about what hap💎pened. Straight away, the mental side didn’t take me down from it.
“Of course it 🐭takes me at least one race weekend to be back fully to where I was before, just because everything was renewed a𒁏fter the damage.”
But Zhou admitted h💛e has stopped himself from watch🍷ing replays of the accident.
“I was able to walk away absolutely fine from it, even though it looks pretty terrifying on the TV and the videos,” he said. “So I tried to keep myself aw🌳ay from all this and just be thinking about what is coming.
“I’m quite glad tha﷽t after all these years of racing, I was mentally very strong and stronger than I expected. So it got me into a way where I didn’t have to reset everything, I could just carry on racing and it was all fine.”
He continued: “It takes a bit of time to be back to where I wa🌜s before, because after the crash, it was mainly like the car, rather than myself.
“I꧑t was all new, so we needed to do an install check to make sure it was all okay. Some updated part🍬s we don’t have anymore, because we are quite short on production, so that’s kind of more than just myself.”
Zhou, who scored his first point since the accident last time out at the Italian Grand Prix, believes his terri꧒fying experience has only made him stronger.
“Always when you have hard moments and tough times and come back to whܫere you were before, automatically your mental strength gains,” ꧒he explained.
“That always hap🅘pens when you have that. So it’s more about how you manage to bounce back ♏from those tough times, because these things just come together.”
Proving his doubters wrong
Zhou made history in becoming China’s first full-time F1 driver this year after he landed a seat alongside 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Valtteri Bottas at Alfa Romeo following three sܫeasonsꦺ in F2.
Ahead of his F1 debut, which w꧃as secured partly thanks to backing from his Chinese sponsors, Zhou faced criticism and online abuse from people who questioned his abilities and labelled him as a pay driver.
But Zhou had an immed🔯iate response to his doubters when he reached🍌 Q2 and scored points at the first attempt at the season-opener in Bahrain.
On paper, three top-10 finishes and six points - versus Bottas’ haul of 46 - might not look too impressive, but there are several mitigating factors to take into account; including Zhou enduring a run of poor reliability which masked his performances when Alfa Romeo’s C42 car wa🔯s at its most competitive at the start of the year.
Zhou has made a strong impression at Alfa Romeo for how he ꦡhas embedded himself at the Hinwil-based outfit, as well as his speed of development and progression, leading technical dir🍸ector Jan Monchaux to brand him as the “surprise” of 2022.
And from a personal perspective, Zhou feels he has proved hisไ critics wrong.
“I think I definitely did and that was the whole point,” he said. “Obviously it’s not something I ♑would like to have, and it’s not something I appreciated at the start of the year.
“I knew that I wasn’t going to re𓂃spond to any of that - I’m just going to do my talking on the track to get people knowing about me.&nbs🃏p;
“It felt so great to be doing that so early, because for a rookie, it takes tim🎃e and you don’t have time to settle yourself in. So I was happy with how I was improving, race-by-race.
“Alre🍎ady getting a point on my debut meant so much to me, just the pressure of wanting to prove myself had already been done in the first round. So that was ꩵa special moment.
“After that, I was more relaxed and just working to improve my weaknesses. It’s definitely been one of the toughest winters but it 👍has been vಞery enjoyable after turning things around.”
Opening up about the abuse he was subjected to, Zhou said: “I don’t look at what happens on social media. But I can see ꩵthat most of them are positive, so I’m very happy♛ to see it.
“It was fully und🍒erstandable the reason, but I think people need to get to know the driver a bit better, following my career better, knowing where I’m coming from and how hard it is to get where I was, finishing top three in the championship to secure the seat. 𝓰;
“Hopefully I can keep showing them a better side of me.”&nbs🥀p;
Carrying the expectation of a nation
18 years after attending the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix in his home city of Shanghai in 2004, Zhou has realised his ambition of🌸 becoming China’s first F1 driver.
F1 anticipates to capitalise, with Z𒁏hou’s landmark achievement seen as being the key to cracking the lucrative Chinese market. A second race in China is understood to be on Liberty Media’s wish-list for the coming years.
Zhou faces enormous pressure ♒as he carries the hopes of an entire nation consisting of over 1.4 billion peop🌃le on his shoulders. He is not afraid to admit he feels the burden.
“Before I even signed the deal, people ꦺwere naming me as the closest ever to get to🌄 F1,” he explained.
“So I had quite a lot of pressure around because I knew I had to make it, because if I don’t, maybe 10 years later we could find another one, but that wou💧ld be t🍌oo long.
“I think to be signing the deal, everyone was keꦓeping an eye on me, having their countryman racing in the best series in motorsport.
“It’s not easy. We have to sacrifice a lot, try to move to Europe to compete against the best. You don’t get here b﷽ec🥂ause of your nationality, you get here because of your superlicence points.
“You need to be fighting for the chဣampionship in F꧑2 to show people you deserve to be here, that you have the capability to be here. So, all these things were tough.
“To be the first… I didn’t expect to be the first of anything, looking at how🧔 bi🍰g my country is! It’s a very proud moment.”
Such was the prior lack of Chinese influence in motorsport that Zhou didn’t even get♌ to raise his country’s flag the first time he stood on the podium at the beginning of his careeꦅr in go-karts.
“I remember my first ever go-kart 🦩race, when I won the race, there wasn’t even a Chinese flag for the podium, so I carried the flag of my racing team, which was England,” he said.
"By the following race they brouꩲght the Chinese flag and I was able to bring that to the junior single-seaters all the way up to F1. I tꦇhink it’s very inspiring for young people.
“We can still do it, if it’s something you have the passion for. You just have to go for♕ it whatever it takes.
“It’s inspired me a lot during my life because dreams are difficult to reach and to be arriving at the dream and doing reasonably succ🌟essfully is something I dreamed of.”
Zhou’s next goal is to compete at his home grand prix, with F1 planning to return to China for the first time in three years next season. The race has been provisionally included on the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:F1 2023 calendar but hinges on the country's COVID-19 situation.
“To be racing at home, it’s 𒊎my next dream target,” Zhou said. “Obviously it’s a dream to be in F1, but seeing other drivers at their home race, when my home race does come it’s going to be an absolutely crazy, phenomenal weekend for me.
“The good thing is the Chinese Grand ꦡPrix has been signed for a few years, so if everything goes right, it’s going to be put in the calend💯ar.
“I feel reasonably ꦇconfident it will be here next year, but we have to let F1 decide. If that is confirmed, then it’ll be a special weekend that I’ꦜll remember for the rest of my life.
“The crowd was amazing when I was there in🎃 2019. I was still an F2 driver back then, so now it’🌠s going to be crazy.”
Le💦wis regularly attends Grands Pri⛎x for wuqian0821.com around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
