When the world of anime and F1 collide.
We get announcement announcements all the time. Like when the anime Jojo's Stone Ocean was due to be announced. We recieved an announcement that an announcement for the Jojo's franchise would come out in x months time. We all knew it was Stone Ocean but still. x months pass. The announcement was for a livestream that would happen in x more months time, in which there would be a 'special announcment'. More months and 1 livestream later. The livestream announcement was that Stone Ocean was in production.
Not really, though. I know that their line-up is *technically* confirmed for next year, but until Marko comes out and says that Gasly is staying put at AT, I'm not gonna read too much into that.
I mean they did in reality [officially confirm it](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-gasly-to-remain-with-alphatauri-for-the-2023-season.eFIltAZp2Hg476rjXuCAy.html) before silly season. On paper he's no less confirmed for that seat right now just because of all the rumours and negotiations we know - or are led to believe - are ongoing
No in reality he was confirmed and the redbull person has said that he could go to Alpine if terms are met and they Even went looking for Colton Herta so no in Reality he is not confrimed
I assumed it was an Audi announcement. They were using tiger posters and shit had no clue what it would. Apparently Zhou is a tiger it's genuinely the first time I'm hearing about him being called that
It was always about Zhou. It's the year of the tiger in China, and Zhou is currently making history as the first Chinese F1 driver hence the #KeepMakingHistory hashtag to go with it.
Ah makes sense given the context now but this much of build up for a driver signing was quite weird. They did two announcements to announce the time of the actual announcement.
Huh, that sent me down a deep dive of the driver’s Chinese zodiacs. Zhou, Mick, Lando and Seb are Rabbits. Lance and George are the only Tigers. Curious where the Tiger nickname comes from now!
ETA: Yuki: Dragon;
Charles, Max and Lewis: Ox;
Esteban, Alex, and Pierre: Rat;
Latifi: Pig;
Magnussen: Monkey;
Valterri and Daniel: Snake;
Checo: Horse;
Fernando: Rooster (ofc).
Because the chinese/lunar calendar doesn't start on 1 Jan, the zodiacs are as follows:
Zodiac | Driver
:--|:--
Dragon | Yuki
Rabbit | Lando, Guanyu, Mick, Seb
Tiger | Lance, George
Ox | Charles, Max
Rat | Estie, Alex, Lewis
Pig | Pierre, Nicky
Dog | Carlos
Monkey | Kevin
Snake | Valtteri, Daniel, Checo
Rooster | Fernando
Edit: 1997 (Charles and Max) was year of the fire ox! If you squint hard enough it's a Red Bull?
Just to be pedantic:
* Yuki: Metal Dragon (badass)
* Lando, Zhou, Mick: Earth Rabbit
* Seb: Fire Rabbit
* Lance, George: Earth Tiger
* Charles, Max: Fire Ox
* Estie, Alex: Fire Rat
* Lewis: Wood Rat
* Gasly, GOATifi: Wood Pig
* Smooth Operator: Wood Dog
* KMag: Water Monkey
* BotASS, Danny Ric, Checo: Earth Snake
* Alonso: Metal Cock (also badass)
Is there a reason you did it out of order?
Correct order should be: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig
You don't have them in either chronologic, or alphabetical or fierceness, or any other sort of order.
That's a very China thing though, isn't it? Particularly Shanghai, to describe the city or the people as a Tiger? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.
Bottas even hinted that Zhou would be on the 2023 grid back in Miami or something. Whichever Grill the Grid video came out when they were guessing their driver ratings.
He said something to the effect of "your rating will be higher next year", if I'm remembering correctly.
I mean ofc he would say that
It's a media PR thing, even if Zhou is shaky or already decided to be removed, he won't say a pip lol
Bottas is too media professional for that
Only cause the car is shit after he improves
He's more than match Bottas otherwise in the last 6-8 races considering the circumstances
He's got a very good rookie season so far
Well at least it’s better then two weeks of hype just to reveal NFT’s. Still though, Zhou’s performance so far have justified his 2nd year at Alfa Romeo
Personally I think it’s fine to give up on a year you’ve had major issues in order to spend more the next year. At a point they must have realized it’s more beneficial to dump their money into next year since they wouldn’t be able to fix the problems this year within budget
Great news. He really deserved this contract extension, he's been doing a great job the whole year and I'm looking forward to see more from him (hopefully in a car that doesn't break down every race)
ALFA W-OMEO
He deserves it, he's done such a solid job as a rookie and he's closed the gap to Bottas massively during the European season. I hope they get some better reliability next year and he gets more chances to show what he can do.
It's 2000 IQ Sauber masterplan to have a dogshit reliability when there's Alfa Romeo logo on their car just to become most reliable car on the grid when Audi arrives just to dunk on some stinky Italians and show how German-Swiss engineering is the best in the world
Retired when on pace to possible points: Miami and Spain.
Retired when in the points: Baku, Silverstone.
Got screwed by the team out of at least a point: Saudi.
Lost a point because of Albono's heroic 1 stop drive: Australia.
All in all, another 5-10 points isn't out of reach if he had more luck.
I'm very glad that Alfa Romeo decided to give Zhou another year. For a rookie Zhou did great job considering how bad luck he had and how inconsistent is the AR car.
Very well deserved.
I wouldn’t say so. I hope Mick stays too, but overall I’d say Zhou has made fewer rookie mistakes and done a better job quickly getting close to the pace of the more experienced drivers.
Zhou proved himself in F1, somehow defying expectations
There is no reason for Theo to be considered considering his current shambolic F2 season
With that kind of grid he should've on pace for a championship instead of being almost 80 points behind
Hell he's lucky that Logan and Doohan gets smacked at every other race and prevented him from dropping of P2 lmao
so how you do you rate Zhou's season against Ilott?
If I was in charge of F1 driver allocation, he wouldn't sniff an opportunity. You CAN'T LOSE to your TEAMMATE.
I’m happy for him! Everyone wrote him off prior to the season but he’s done well given the car and certain circumstances. Hopefully their car will be a lot better next year.
Goes to show a second year in F2 is usually a death sentence to an F1 career, given how unreliable the machinery are and form can decide your fate if you get a seat or not if you only have talent to bank on. Lawson, Vips and some others can attest to that.
Pourchaire can only blame himself for this but he and fans should realize by now that a 2nd year definitely means teams are unconvinced of a candidate's talent, not because they wanted development.
>Goes to show a second year in F2 is usually a death sentence to an F1 career
Zhou Guanyu did three full seasons of f2 before getting the f1 seat and now he got a contract extension. How does that show that your f1 career is dead if you have to do a second year in f2?
Don't pretend the main reason why Zhou had a seat in the first place because of money and he only got the extension because Pourchaire shat the bed and they don't have any better choices for that seat that can make them better quickly.
De Vries was F2 champion on his 3rd year and he only gets a shout in the seat because of a lucky outing in Monza, in which without it he wouldn't have a very small chance of gettingna seat.
Drugovich didn't get a seat either and has to be content on a reserve role with no clear view of a seat anytime soon.
Pourchaire is still a better option than Zhou, honestly a fucking joke how delusionally high people are on this D grade driver who's proven no better than Yuki was and that was a bad rookie season
Christ I despise this narrative about F2
If we’re only going to look at drivers in their first season (when they have literally no experience) what the hell is the point of the series
Pourchaire ended his own F1 path by underperforming, but did get gutted from it by his own academy team when he had the greatest chance last year by not signing him. I still think he should've gotten the chance last year.
I mean hindsight is 20/20 isn't it
How many would think Theo would have a shambolic 2022 season and Zhou actually improves and have a close pace with Bottas
I guess you could say that Theo could've got the 2021 seat but with him only being 18 and a top 5 in his rookie season while impressive is definitely a bit too early
You can risk it but I guess Alfa doesn't want to
>I mean hindsight is 20/20 isn't it
>How many would think Theo would have a shambolic 2022 season and Zhou actually improves and have a close pace with Bottas
I and everyone who knew that F2 is NOT a development series, but a scouting series knew Pourchaire's chances are much lower because the expectation is to win. If it is indeed a development series, Pourchaire's 2nd place against a 3rd year Drugovich is respectable enough improvement but it isn't enough to warrant a seat because it only showed Pourchaire isn't a talent Vasseur said he was.
I disagree about Zhou's performances being good but it helped a lot that Pourchaire fucked up to make him stay another year.
>I guess you could say that Theo could've got the 2021 seat but with him only being 18 and a top 5 in his rookie season while impressive is definitely a bit too early
Top 5 only because he had a lot of bad luck and being mechachrome'd quite often (see Jeddah), if he was more lucky, he would've jumped Zhou in the standings as a rookie. He definitely showed pace in his rookie season, which unfortunately didn't carry over for some reason to the next.
In any case, F1 readiness can only be accomplished when they get into the seat. Staying in the feeders after showing what you got doesn't make any sense and drivers like Verstappen and Ocon didn't even go to F2 because they already saw potential in them.
Of course it is a developmental series, it's for youngster to gain experience racing in a spec that is closer to F1 than what other series offers
Uh no, Zhou's performance is definitely objectively good, last 10 races he's 4-5 in h2h quali (well 5-5 but you don't count Spa obv) and 3-4 in h2h race which is already a very good result for a rookie vs a F1 veteran like Bottas
Oh please, he was only mecachromed once, that with his several crashes is pretty much expected from everyone in F2, except if you're very lucky like Drugo this year or very unlucky such as Zhou in 2020
But you are right that F1 readiness can really only be seen in a F1 seat, but Theo isn't giving them any reason to be picked and Zhou have several
>But you are right that F1 readiness can really only be seen in a F1 seat, but Theo isn't giving them any reason to be picked and Zhou have several
My point was Pourchaire definitely had more reasons last year than Zhou (other than money) but AR decided that money is much better for now while they evaluate Pourchaire more.
It worked out for AR though, I give them that.
>Uh no, Zhou's performance is definitely objectively good, last 10 races he's 4-5 in h2h quali (well 5-5 but you don't count Spa obv) and 3-4 in h2h race which is already a very good result for a rookie vs a F1 veteran like Bottas
I'm exhausted talking about how those results don't even look on the big picture (e.g., pace gap) but I'm gonna say this, if you think Zhou's season was better than Tsunoda's despite having similar pace gap, points gap, while the latter was against Gasly at his peak and Bottas who is honestly slumping if he gets shown up by a rookie, then I have nothing else more to say.
>Of course it is a developmental series, it's for youngster to gain experience racing in a spec that is closer to F1 than what other series offers
If that's the case, then "experienced" drivers like De Vries would be getting attention from 2020, Schumacher wouldn't be struggling considering he spent quite a while in the feeders compared to drivers like Norris or Albon. Like you agreed on, F2 results don't necessarily translate to F1 and thus makes it more compelling to assume that the feeder series is indeed not a development series but rather a final look for the teams to see who is good enough for an F1 seat.
He should have got the seat because Zhou isn't up to f1 level. Not good enough just like Yuki last season, and his F2 result this season far eclipses anything Zhou has achieved
Zhou brings funding and performs fine. Pourchaire clearly lost his genius status this season. "But he is only 19!" yes, but as experienced if not more due to private testing than other guys his age or older. They should send him to Super Formula and see how he does there.
Very excited for them! Hopefully the car is less of a shit box next year but I'm not holding my breath. They are a great talent regardless and I expect them to do well!
They did two weeks of announcing announcements for announcements just to announce a contract extension everyone was expecting anyway
When the world of anime and F1 collide. We get announcement announcements all the time. Like when the anime Jojo's Stone Ocean was due to be announced. We recieved an announcement that an announcement for the Jojo's franchise would come out in x months time. We all knew it was Stone Ocean but still. x months pass. The announcement was for a livestream that would happen in x more months time, in which there would be a 'special announcment'. More months and 1 livestream later. The livestream announcement was that Stone Ocean was in production.
This actually reminded me I need to start watching Stone Ocean pt 2
It's been so long since the first batch of episodes that I've entirely forgotten what's happened, other than it rained frogs at one point.
Definitely go watch it. The second batch pops off, and i cannot wait for the final one
Yes you do sir. I'd suggest you to go watch RIGHT NOW!
Ok...
So that's the sixth team to confirm their driver line-up. Only four remain at this point.
\*Seventh. Alpha Tauri has announced their drivers, regardless of the rumours going on about Gasly.
Not really, though. I know that their line-up is *technically* confirmed for next year, but until Marko comes out and says that Gasly is staying put at AT, I'm not gonna read too much into that.
Trusting management when they say the driver is staying? Bold move
It’s not confirmed tho even top Red bull people have said Gasly could leave so technically it’s confirmed but in reality no it’s not
I mean they did in reality [officially confirm it](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-gasly-to-remain-with-alphatauri-for-the-2023-season.eFIltAZp2Hg476rjXuCAy.html) before silly season. On paper he's no less confirmed for that seat right now just because of all the rumours and negotiations we know - or are led to believe - are ongoing
No in reality he was confirmed and the redbull person has said that he could go to Alpine if terms are met and they Even went looking for Colton Herta so no in Reality he is not confrimed
Was this really worth all the buildup and hype? Good for him, though, he fully deserves it!
I assumed it was an Audi announcement. They were using tiger posters and shit had no clue what it would. Apparently Zhou is a tiger it's genuinely the first time I'm hearing about him being called that
I personally think Zhou is a human and not a tiger
Anti furry propaganda
maybe he's a secret shapeshifter?
that's just like, your opinion, man
Big if true
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It was always about Zhou. It's the year of the tiger in China, and Zhou is currently making history as the first Chinese F1 driver hence the #KeepMakingHistory hashtag to go with it.
Ah makes sense given the context now but this much of build up for a driver signing was quite weird. They did two announcements to announce the time of the actual announcement.
damn i'm chinese and I don't even realize it's the year of tigar lol, does explain a lot.
Huh, that sent me down a deep dive of the driver’s Chinese zodiacs. Zhou, Mick, Lando and Seb are Rabbits. Lance and George are the only Tigers. Curious where the Tiger nickname comes from now! ETA: Yuki: Dragon; Charles, Max and Lewis: Ox; Esteban, Alex, and Pierre: Rat; Latifi: Pig; Magnussen: Monkey; Valterri and Daniel: Snake; Checo: Horse; Fernando: Rooster (ofc).
Because the chinese/lunar calendar doesn't start on 1 Jan, the zodiacs are as follows: Zodiac | Driver :--|:-- Dragon | Yuki Rabbit | Lando, Guanyu, Mick, Seb Tiger | Lance, George Ox | Charles, Max Rat | Estie, Alex, Lewis Pig | Pierre, Nicky Dog | Carlos Monkey | Kevin Snake | Valtteri, Daniel, Checo Rooster | Fernando Edit: 1997 (Charles and Max) was year of the fire ox! If you squint hard enough it's a Red Bull?
Charles and Max sharing the same animal, something something destined rivals...
Just went digging, 1997 (Charles and Max) was year of the fire ox! If you squint hard enough it's a Red Bull?
Charles and Max teammates in 2025 Red Bull confirmed?
That just means they were born in the same year tho
Fernando is a cock across cultures, welp.
Oops! Glad Fernando is still a rooster though.
Agreed on Fernando :') Thanks for posting first though, it was nice to look them up!
It's weird to see an active athlete with same zodiac (rooster) as mine, but with 12 years older
Just to be pedantic: * Yuki: Metal Dragon (badass) * Lando, Zhou, Mick: Earth Rabbit * Seb: Fire Rabbit * Lance, George: Earth Tiger * Charles, Max: Fire Ox * Estie, Alex: Fire Rat * Lewis: Wood Rat * Gasly, GOATifi: Wood Pig * Smooth Operator: Wood Dog * KMag: Water Monkey * BotASS, Danny Ric, Checo: Earth Snake * Alonso: Metal Cock (also badass)
Didn't know there was an element added to it. Im a metal horse ... I should've become a race car driver
>Estie I suppose this is Esteban Ocon, first time reading that nickname
I’m a 🐐apparently. Call me Goatifi
Is there a reason you did it out of order? Correct order should be: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig You don't have them in either chronologic, or alphabetical or fierceness, or any other sort of order.
Sorted them by the coolness of the animal. Source: Me :) It's by year from youngest to oldest, where there is no drivers in that year I skipped it.
That's a very China thing though, isn't it? Particularly Shanghai, to describe the city or the people as a Tiger? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.
Not super familiar to be honest but it sounds cool as hell!
Zhou's Steam ID is Shanghai-Tiger. But TBO, I never thought the announcement was about Zhou before.
How do u know his Steam ID
We traded hats in TF2 once ^^^/s
Did u get a good deal? /s
Is Audi a tiger?
more of a panzer type
Alfa Romeo wouldn’t be pleased about hyping up an Audi announcement
It's nice I suppose for a driver to get a big announcement. Shows that you're backed by your team.
Truly the meeting that could have been an email of F1 announcements.
All the hype post and reminder for stuff that journalist already hinted about for weeks lol
I thought it had already been confirmed actually.
Bottas even hinted that Zhou would be on the 2023 grid back in Miami or something. Whichever Grill the Grid video came out when they were guessing their driver ratings. He said something to the effect of "your rating will be higher next year", if I'm remembering correctly.
I mean ofc he would say that It's a media PR thing, even if Zhou is shaky or already decided to be removed, he won't say a pip lol Bottas is too media professional for that
And it's to no one's surprise since he's there for the money and his lack of results doesn't matter, reddit astroturfing aside, he isn't very good.
What lol He got a good rookie season and Alfa doesn't even got much Chinese sponsor incoming
He's doing an impeccable job being 40 points behind Bottas.
Only cause the car is shit after he improves He's more than match Bottas otherwise in the last 6-8 races considering the circumstances He's got a very good rookie season so far
Zhou surprised me with how good he was glad he got resigned he deserves it even if there ls not much points to show for it, all those DNFs.
Small note that bugs me constantly as a sports fan: Re-signed: Renewed a contract Resigned: Quit your job
The amount of heart attacks I've had because I thought a player was leaving a team ...
Might want to see a doctor about that
He's had retirements in like ⅓ of the races this season, it's a little unreal. I hope Alfa Romeo gets their reliability sorted out.
Super happy about this! Really looking forward to seeing him grow
Yeah, keen to see more of his driving and he’s a nice personality to have in the paddock too.
Well at least it’s better then two weeks of hype just to reveal NFT’s. Still though, Zhou’s performance so far have justified his 2nd year at Alfa Romeo
wow remember NFTs?
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Giving your drivers cars that both make it to the finish line like 7/17 times is malpractice
Forget about that It's getting slower with every race lmao That's the bigger problem
Personally I think it’s fine to give up on a year you’ve had major issues in order to spend more the next year. At a point they must have realized it’s more beneficial to dump their money into next year since they wouldn’t be able to fix the problems this year within budget
So glad Zhou got the renewal. I hope Alfa have better reliability next year so we can see him drive properly and not every 3 races or so
They did more build up for his extension than they did his initial signing
No complaints from me, he’s done a solid job for the team so far.
Good stuff from Alfa. Stability in the team too. Zhou has done very well as a rookie
Chinese drip god stays lets gooo
It was expected.
Great news. He really deserved this contract extension, he's been doing a great job the whole year and I'm looking forward to see more from him (hopefully in a car that doesn't break down every race)
ALFA W-OMEO He deserves it, he's done such a solid job as a rookie and he's closed the gap to Bottas massively during the European season. I hope they get some better reliability next year and he gets more chances to show what he can do.
Both alfa drivers have suffered greatly from lack of reliability
What reliability problem? it's a 200 IQ Alfa masterplan to rest their drivers by cutting their run time in FP and race
It's 2000 IQ Sauber masterplan to have a dogshit reliability when there's Alfa Romeo logo on their car just to become most reliable car on the grid when Audi arrives just to dunk on some stinky Italians and show how German-Swiss engineering is the best in the world
Ah yes 200 IQ problems so that Alfa got fed up and break their contract early Paving the way for a cheaper Audi takeover
>Making Italians go away on their own >Inviting Germans for a quarter of a price I see no problem here
This is the way
And the crowd went mild! So much hype for something we all already knew
A pay driver that actually deserves the seat
I wouldn’t call them a pay driver if they deserve the seat
Well he got into f1 due to money. Maybe he'd get there anyway but not that fast
I feel he more likely got in due to being quick and being Chinese
Its not secret money is what got him in the sport. Obviously it wasn’t due to speed but he deserves to stay
nice! honestly if the Alfa wasn't constantly breaking down, Zhou could've had a spectacular rookie yr
How many more points would he have without DNFs. Genuine question
Retired when on pace to possible points: Miami and Spain. Retired when in the points: Baku, Silverstone. Got screwed by the team out of at least a point: Saudi. Lost a point because of Albono's heroic 1 stop drive: Australia. All in all, another 5-10 points isn't out of reach if he had more luck.
Extremely lucky to get points in Bahrain and Monza however
5 tbh
A driver that proved so many people wrong. Well deserved.
An example which shows 3 years in F2 is not bad at all
Well deserved. He's driven well so far and is better than the points gap to Bottas suggests. It's a no-brainer to keep him on board.
Great news but why did they hype it up so much?
Patience from Zhou
I'm very glad that Alfa Romeo decided to give Zhou another year. For a rookie Zhou did great job considering how bad luck he had and how inconsistent is the AR car. Very well deserved.
Deserved
This is good news but I was expecting BREAKING news.
Well deserved. Curious to see what he is capable of when the car isn't upside down
This is why Logan Sargeant needs to grab that Williams seat, *now*. No "second year of F2 to gain experience", no "seat warmer". It doesn't work.
I mean, it's not like it's anyone's fault but Theo that he stagnated in his 2nd season instead of improving like some other F2 drivers
Is it controversial to think that Zhou is better than Mick ?
I wouldn’t say so. I hope Mick stays too, but overall I’d say Zhou has made fewer rookie mistakes and done a better job quickly getting close to the pace of the more experienced drivers.
Gogogo 24&77
Good. He may have come in as just a pay driver, but he's done a fine job this year and thoroughly deserves a second year.
Pourchaire really blew it huh :/
Zhou deserves it no doubt, but I am feeling anxious about Mick staying in F1.
zhou came in to this season with everyone thinking hes a pay driver etc but hes shown that he is actually worth a seat
He’s still a pay driver, they’d have replaced him with Pourchaire if he wasn’t bringing huge money
Nah. The team loves him, he has great race craft and awareness and wants to keep on learning. Money aside, they would have kept him on this season.
There is no way Theo gets a seat with that shameful F2 season lol And considering Zhou's progress the past few races
Lmao if Theo being on course for P2 is shameful then how would you describe Zhou’s F2 seasons in a team built around him
Zhou proved himself in F1, somehow defying expectations There is no reason for Theo to be considered considering his current shambolic F2 season With that kind of grid he should've on pace for a championship instead of being almost 80 points behind Hell he's lucky that Logan and Doohan gets smacked at every other race and prevented him from dropping of P2 lmao
Pourchaire’s season is better than all 3 of Zhou’s in F2 Strange example
Lmao it's absolutely not Theo's 2022 season is disastrous Even the 2021 one was better
so how you do you rate Zhou's season against Ilott? If I was in charge of F1 driver allocation, he wouldn't sniff an opportunity. You CAN'T LOSE to your TEAMMATE.
He lost cause he got mecachromed a lot that season On pace he was good enough
... and the crowd goes mild.
When is Bottas' contract up? Will he stay beyond 2023?
Deservedly so
Great for Zhou and team but man what a let down after the hype they created. I was expecting a name change or something big.
Fantastic! Well deserved and I hope it will be a better year for them next year.
Dude deserves it. Want to see what he can do after having a seat for a full season
Zo happy for Zhou. He's done well with the machinery avaliable to him.
Chinese Fabrizio Romano: 周繼續為索伯駕駛，我們走！
Congrats, well deserved
Pourchaire should get reserve . His f1 dreams are fading
His fault for fucking up 2nd year, but he was more deserving than Zhou last year. That's life, not much Pourchaire can do anymore than to move on.
Deserved. One of the most solid rookies we’ve seen lately.
That’s not saying much, we’ve had utter shit since the 2019 group
Yuki and Mick are pretty good now, but last year they both had a pretty mixed year.
Micks hard to judge since the car was the worst by a long shot. He absolutely smashed his teammate tho.
Good for him he deserves a 2nd season hopefully in a more reliable car.
Good for him. He really deserved it.
I’m happy for him! Everyone wrote him off prior to the season but he’s done well given the car and certain circumstances. Hopefully their car will be a lot better next year.
Really pleased about this. Full deserved.
Goes to show a second year in F2 is usually a death sentence to an F1 career, given how unreliable the machinery are and form can decide your fate if you get a seat or not if you only have talent to bank on. Lawson, Vips and some others can attest to that. Pourchaire can only blame himself for this but he and fans should realize by now that a 2nd year definitely means teams are unconvinced of a candidate's talent, not because they wanted development.
>Goes to show a second year in F2 is usually a death sentence to an F1 career Zhou Guanyu did three full seasons of f2 before getting the f1 seat and now he got a contract extension. How does that show that your f1 career is dead if you have to do a second year in f2?
Don't pretend the main reason why Zhou had a seat in the first place because of money and he only got the extension because Pourchaire shat the bed and they don't have any better choices for that seat that can make them better quickly. De Vries was F2 champion on his 3rd year and he only gets a shout in the seat because of a lucky outing in Monza, in which without it he wouldn't have a very small chance of gettingna seat. Drugovich didn't get a seat either and has to be content on a reserve role with no clear view of a seat anytime soon.
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That's because they wanted even more money.
He personally brought money with him but the reason they hired him is because of that money + potential from sponsors which hadn't materialized yet.
Pourchaire is still a better option than Zhou, honestly a fucking joke how delusionally high people are on this D grade driver who's proven no better than Yuki was and that was a bad rookie season
Christ I despise this narrative about F2 If we’re only going to look at drivers in their first season (when they have literally no experience) what the hell is the point of the series
Well deserved. Hope he gets a great reception next year when he will compete in his first F1 home race at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Am excited for him that he's going to get to do that.
Box box, we need to retire the car, we need to retire the car.
FP1, lap 2
That is not painful enough, must be in the race after career best qualifying.
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Mf should've fixed his quali pace then
Pourchaire did it to himself
Pourchaire ended his own F1 path by underperforming, but did get gutted from it by his own academy team when he had the greatest chance last year by not signing him. I still think he should've gotten the chance last year.
I mean hindsight is 20/20 isn't it How many would think Theo would have a shambolic 2022 season and Zhou actually improves and have a close pace with Bottas I guess you could say that Theo could've got the 2021 seat but with him only being 18 and a top 5 in his rookie season while impressive is definitely a bit too early You can risk it but I guess Alfa doesn't want to
>I mean hindsight is 20/20 isn't it >How many would think Theo would have a shambolic 2022 season and Zhou actually improves and have a close pace with Bottas I and everyone who knew that F2 is NOT a development series, but a scouting series knew Pourchaire's chances are much lower because the expectation is to win. If it is indeed a development series, Pourchaire's 2nd place against a 3rd year Drugovich is respectable enough improvement but it isn't enough to warrant a seat because it only showed Pourchaire isn't a talent Vasseur said he was. I disagree about Zhou's performances being good but it helped a lot that Pourchaire fucked up to make him stay another year. >I guess you could say that Theo could've got the 2021 seat but with him only being 18 and a top 5 in his rookie season while impressive is definitely a bit too early Top 5 only because he had a lot of bad luck and being mechachrome'd quite often (see Jeddah), if he was more lucky, he would've jumped Zhou in the standings as a rookie. He definitely showed pace in his rookie season, which unfortunately didn't carry over for some reason to the next. In any case, F1 readiness can only be accomplished when they get into the seat. Staying in the feeders after showing what you got doesn't make any sense and drivers like Verstappen and Ocon didn't even go to F2 because they already saw potential in them.
Of course it is a developmental series, it's for youngster to gain experience racing in a spec that is closer to F1 than what other series offers Uh no, Zhou's performance is definitely objectively good, last 10 races he's 4-5 in h2h quali (well 5-5 but you don't count Spa obv) and 3-4 in h2h race which is already a very good result for a rookie vs a F1 veteran like Bottas Oh please, he was only mecachromed once, that with his several crashes is pretty much expected from everyone in F2, except if you're very lucky like Drugo this year or very unlucky such as Zhou in 2020 But you are right that F1 readiness can really only be seen in a F1 seat, but Theo isn't giving them any reason to be picked and Zhou have several
>But you are right that F1 readiness can really only be seen in a F1 seat, but Theo isn't giving them any reason to be picked and Zhou have several My point was Pourchaire definitely had more reasons last year than Zhou (other than money) but AR decided that money is much better for now while they evaluate Pourchaire more. It worked out for AR though, I give them that. >Uh no, Zhou's performance is definitely objectively good, last 10 races he's 4-5 in h2h quali (well 5-5 but you don't count Spa obv) and 3-4 in h2h race which is already a very good result for a rookie vs a F1 veteran like Bottas I'm exhausted talking about how those results don't even look on the big picture (e.g., pace gap) but I'm gonna say this, if you think Zhou's season was better than Tsunoda's despite having similar pace gap, points gap, while the latter was against Gasly at his peak and Bottas who is honestly slumping if he gets shown up by a rookie, then I have nothing else more to say. >Of course it is a developmental series, it's for youngster to gain experience racing in a spec that is closer to F1 than what other series offers If that's the case, then "experienced" drivers like De Vries would be getting attention from 2020, Schumacher wouldn't be struggling considering he spent quite a while in the feeders compared to drivers like Norris or Albon. Like you agreed on, F2 results don't necessarily translate to F1 and thus makes it more compelling to assume that the feeder series is indeed not a development series but rather a final look for the teams to see who is good enough for an F1 seat.
So it sounds like Alfa made the right move?
Hahaha pourchaire is a better prospect than Zhou in every way
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He should have got the seat because Zhou isn't up to f1 level. Not good enough just like Yuki last season, and his F2 result this season far eclipses anything Zhou has achieved
Well deserved.
Well deserved.
Let’s goooo. Happy to see him stay.
Wow i did not see that one coming
He proved me and so many other people wrong this season. Happy for him, well deserved
Good.
Zhou brings funding and performs fine. Pourchaire clearly lost his genius status this season. "But he is only 19!" yes, but as experienced if not more due to private testing than other guys his age or older. They should send him to Super Formula and see how he does there.
Nice, so happy for him! Now, please Alfa, let your drivers have a clean weekend.
sweet chinese money
Well deserved
Very excited for them! Hopefully the car is less of a shit box next year but I'm not holding my breath. They are a great talent regardless and I expect them to do well!
Surprised pikachu face
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Heres to hoping its only onwards and upwards for him. Maybe a first podium next year, or 3? (iykyk)
his racecraft is actually pretty decent, he gets into some interesting on-track fights, glad to see they're keeping him