New Ferrari reserve driver Zhou Guanyu is set to become a serious candidate to join the new Cadillac F1 team for the F1 2026 season.

Ferrari confirmed on Wednesday that Zhou has joined the team’s roster of reserve drivers for F1 2025, having been dropped by Sauber at the end of last season.

Zhou Guanyu to join Cadillac F1 after Ferrari reserve role?

Zhou will share the role with fellow former Sauber man Antonio Giovinazzi, who will combine his reserve duties with his racing exploits in Ferrari’s World Endurance Championship operation.

Zhou, a member of Ferrari’s junior scheme between 2015 and 2018, became the first-ever Chinese driver to race in F1 when he joined Sauber (then Alfa Romeo) at the start of 2022, scoring 16 points in 68 starts for the Swiss team.

Despite claiming Sauber’s only points finish of F1 2024 with eighth at the penultimate race in Qatar, Zhou was released along with team-mate Valtteri Bottas as the soon-to-be Audi F1 team opted for an all-new driver lineup of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto.

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Bottas has since returned to Mercedes, with whom he claimed all 10 of his career victories between 2017 and 2021, in a reserve role.

Zhou has made no secret of his desire to a return to a race seat in time for the start of the sport’s new era in F1 2026.

The 2026 season will see sweeping rule changes introduced to the chassis and engine – including a move to 50 per cent electrification, fully sustainable fuels and active aerodynamics – with F1 also set to welcome an 11th team in the new Cadillac F1 (formerly Andretti) outfit.

And Ferrari’s links to Cadillac are poised to help Zhou emerge as a leading contender to join the new American outfit.

Ferrari announced a multi-year technical partnership with Cadillac in December, with the Italian team set to provide engines and gearboxes to the newcomers from F1 2026.

It is thought that the arrangement will cover the 2026 and 2027 seasons, with Ferrari assisting Cadillac’s first steps into F1 as the General Motors-owned brand proceed with plans to develop their own power unit from 2028.

The deal with Ferrari came just days after Graeme Lowdon, the former chief executive of the now-defunct Marussia team, was appointed as the Cadillac F1 team principal.

Lowdon is known to have a close relationship with Zhou, having played a role in the driver’s management team.

As well as bringing an American driver into Formula 1, Cadillac are understood to be searching for a driver with recent F1 experience to spearhead their first season.

Zhou could follow in the footsteps of another former Sauber driver, Esteban Gutierrez, who returned to a race seat with the help of a Ferrari technical partnership after losing his place on the grid.

Having been dropped by Sauber at the end of 2014, Gutierrez spent the 2015 season as Ferrari’s test and reserve driver before securing a return with customers team Haas in 2016.

Like Gutierrez, Zhou is known to bring significant financial backing via a portfolio of sponsors.

Rumours last June claimed Zhou and his sponsors offered in excess of €30million to Haas for an F1 2025 seat, with the team rejecting the approach to sign their preferred driver lineup of Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman.

Zhou laughed off the reports, claiming that the scale of his financial backing had been wildly exaggerated.

Ferrari have not specified whether Zhou’s new role will include private TPC [Testing of Previous Car] testing over the course of F1 2025 as he targets a return to a race seat.

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com at last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, Zhou was insistent that the promise of on-track running would prove crucial to a decision on his destination for 2025, with the 25-year-old keen to stay sharp in the hope of a 2026 comeback.

Asked if he was considering a full season in another category in 2025, he said: “At the moment no. I had offers and interest [from] other series.

“But at the moment, I still want to be staying here because I do feel, with a lot of rookies joining the teams, there’s a lot of opportunities that could happen for ’26 onwards, so I still want to stay here.

“It won’t be a long period that I try to stay on in a reserve role before I take another series, but I do still try to get [an F1 seat] as much as I possibly can and hopefully waiting for a good opportunity to come back.

“Some series attract me but I just feel, at this period of my racing career, I still want to give [it another] shot in this paddock.

“I think it’s going to be if there’s a chance to step into the race car, by any chance, you will be the priority for the team. That’s very important.

“And, also, I think the other thing is that I would love to not just be sitting around or doing simulator.

“I would love to do some test days like a lot of teams are doing.

“That’s why we need to speak more into details, because obviously I don’t want to do a lot of days, but I do want to be still driving a car, because obviously I’m not doing other series and I still want to have a body fit for racing in Formula 1.

“That’s the priority.

“The good side of things, I guess, is not a lot of experienced drivers are out of seats. There are only a few.

“Some of them are not racing in F1 or doing something else, so I think the chances are very high for me and just hopefully I find the place I want to be and hopefully get a chance to finally come back.”

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