French F1 reporter Fred Ferret has tipped Zhou Guanyu to make a return to Alpine in place of 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Esteban Ocon for 2025.

Alpine have at least one vacancy for 2025 after Ocon’s departure was announced on Monday ahead of the Canadi൩an Grand Prix.

Pierre Gasly is expected to rem🧸ain with theღ team, although the identity of his teammate is still unclear.

Alpine have a couple of internal opti꧂ons available to them in Jack Doohan (their reserve driver) and Mick Schumacher (who races for them in WEC).

Externally, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Valtteri Bottas has been linked, as has his teammate, Zhou.

Zho🍌u was part of the Renault fold before ꦬjoining Sauber at the start of 2022.

On the latestꦐ episode of the F1 Nation podcast, Ferret explai🦋ned why Zhou to Alpine “makes sense”.

“What about Zhou? Who will be out of a seat,” he said. “We know that Geely is very close to Renault. Gelly is a c🍌ar manufacturer of China which is very close ♌to Renault in France.

“They signed a deal one year ago. It would make sense to🐬 have a Chinese driver, even if it’s a French team, who is related to a Chinese manufacturer.

“I think Zhou makes sense alongside Pierre.”

F1 Nation podcast host Tom Clarkson feels thꦦat Zhou “ticks a lot of boxes” and his prior links to Alpine make him a realistic candidate.

“I think the team will want to retain Pierre,” Clarkson added. “Zhou actually ticks a l🃏ot of boxes because he was part of the Alpine young driver programme and they want to prove, particularly after everything that happened with Oscar Piastri there’s aꦆctually a way through to the F1 team.

“He did an FP1 in Austria 2021 was the first time he appeared at a race weekend. That was in an Alpine so he’s got all the links, he’s got the link to Geely as you say. I wonder if Zhou actually is in pole position to replace Es🃏teban.

“Zhou and Gasly. I think it is not a ba🅺d line up.”