With the news that Cadillac has been approved by Formula 1 to join the grid for the 2026 season, it opens up the possibility of two more seats to be vacated.
The F1 driver market has been busy this year with several movements across the grid, mainly kicked off by the news that Lewis Hamilton will be joining Ferrari in 2025.
What followed was a raft of announcements with Haas set to take an entirely new lineup, along with Sauber also recently confirming that they would be replacing both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
Bottas is expected to get a reserve driver role at his old team Mercedes, while Zhou has vowed to find another opportunity to stay in F1 following his Axe.
With the Cadillac opportunity opening up, the Chinese driver said it could be a possibility when speaking in the Qatar GP drivers’ press conference.
Zhou Guanyu sees an opportunity at Cadillac in 2026
Cadillac looks likely to go for an American driver based on comments made by director of the board Mario Andretti, however, the £1.5m-a-year driver has also confirmed that he is targeting a drive at the US team.
“I’m fully aware of GM and also Cadillac joining the grid. It’s very good for the sport in general because a lot of people always talking about having probably not enough seats for the people, young drivers available. Clearly, I think we have a lot of young drivers for next year,” said Zhou.
“From my position, it’s a great opportunity and a great chance for next season, because I’m not having a seat so I can probably properly think about what the future will be and try to have an opportunity there.
“So I’m aware of that, but everything was just only announced this week, so we need to still go through a bit more further details on that. For me, my priority is trying to have another chance and coming back on the grid. So for me, I don’t really have a way I go, but if there’s a chance to grab, I will absolutely take it.”
Zhou Guanyu faces fresh blow over Ferrari reserve role chances
Zhou hoped to reignite his relationship with other teams up and down the grid, including Ferrari who he used to be under their Driver Academy banner.
However, according to reports Ferrari is not even considering Zhou for a potential role at the team as their test and reserve driver.
READ MORE: Sauber driver Zhou Guanyu’s life outside F1 from height to net worth
Instead, it appears Bearman will be given the role alongside his Haas F1 duties for the 2025 season onwards with Zhou set to miss out.
Potentially it means Zhou could find refuge at Alpine having previously also raced under their young driver banner.
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