Zhou Guanyu makes play for Alpine return as Sauber days appear numbered

Zhou Guanyu is looking for a way to stay on the F1 grid in the 2025 season.

Zhou Guanyu is open to the possibility of a return to Alpine for the F1 2025 season, having been with Team Enstone as a junior driver.

Zhou was a former Ferrari junior before joining Renault’s ranks in time for his second Formula 2 campaign, with an eventual promotion to Formula 1 coming when he joined Alfa Romeo in F1 2022.

Zhou Guanyu ‘open’ to potential Alpine talks with F1 2025 future undecided

Zhou’s future in the sport is currently uncertain, with only one seat available with his current team, Sauber, beyond the end of the year – as Nico Hulkenberg has already signed up to rejoin the team for next season.

Audi, who are taking over the Hinwil-based outfit from F1 2026, are looking to secure their line-up for the transition into Formula 1’s new regulation cycle, with Carlos Sainz a known target.

While confirming he is looking to stay with his current team, Zhou explained that a return to the Enstone-based team – this time in an F1 race seat – would be an option he is willing to explore, admitting he is unsure where his future lies as it stands.

“I think the other [Sauber] seat is still available, so we still have an option,” Zhou told reporters in Canada when asked if Alpine may be an option for him next season.

“And of course, with Alpine I always had a very good connection in the past because that’s where really helped me to have the chance maybe before Formula 1, and then really grateful to join Alfa Romeo at the time and Sauber to have the chance.

“So now I’m open to other teams or open to discussion about my future.

“Nothing has been confirmed, but I feel like there should be a spot for me in the future on this grid, but I just don’t know where.”

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While there are still eight seats unsigned beyond the end of 2024, Zhou confirmed he is not looking for any slots as a third driver at this stage, with retaining his place on the grid his current priority.

“I don’t want to be the reserve, I don’t want to take a year off,” he stated.

“I don’t think at this kind of age of my career, I don’t really want to take a year off because in Formula 1, when you take a year off, it’s difficult to come back.

“Just because you’re not racing, it’s such a high level and every year, the cars are changing and you need to adapt, you need to understand something different.

“So my option is, of course, try to get a seat for next year, and reserve is definitely not an option at the moment.

“If you have to then we have to see, we have to consider, but at the moment I’m not to trying to think for that way.”

With one seat at Sauber already signed for next year, Zhou said Hulkenberg is deserving of the multi-year deal he earned to straddle the team’s transition to Audi for 2026.

For the remaining seats, he is looking to take an opportunity that might come his way, with the midfield “unknown for everyone” without a contract at this stage.

“Nico joined this team but [this] was already known because [of] Audi and also him coming from Germany and also having good results recently, so he kind of deserved one seat at this place,” Zhou said,

“And then the rest is mainly the other teams, to be honest, so that midfield is still very much unknown for everyone with a few seat spots available for everyone to grab at.

“So we need to see, hopefully taking the chance and see what happens.”

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