The last vacant seat on the F1 grid for next season has been filled by F2 Championship Challenger Guanyu Zhou to become China's first-ever F1 driver who will race alongside Valterri Bottas at Alfa Romeo.
16/11/21
Despite his best efforts, Italian Antonio Giovinazzi will not be on the grid next season having been replaced by Guanyu Zhou.
Giovinazzi, who has driven for the Alfa Romeo Team since 2019, has announced that he will be competing in Formula E with Dragon Penske instead.
in 60 starts for the team, Giovinazzi has finished a best of fifth at the 2019 Brazilian GP but currently lies 18th in the championship having only scored a single point despite some exceptional qualifying performances.
Zhou will make the step-up from F2 where he currently lies second in the Championship with six races remaining.
He is an Alpine Junior driver and with the Formula One Team not making any driver changes heading into next season, Zhou has been linked with Alfa Romeo for several months.
He will partner Valterri Bottas at Alfa Romeo in a brand-new line-up for the Hinwil based team who have fielded 2007 Champion Kimi Raikkonen and Giovinazzi since 2019.
Zhou, 22, has been a front-runner in this season's F2 Championship and has eyed an opportunity to move up the ranks to join the sport. Earlier this year, he got behind Fernando Alonso's Alpine and drove superbly in the Opening Practice session in Austria.
“I dreamt from a young age of climbing as high as I can in a sport that I am passionate about and now the dream has come true. It is a privilege for me to start my Formula 1 career with an iconic team, a team that has introduced so much young talent into Formula 1 in the past. Now the dream is reality."
Come the start of next season, Zhou will become the first Chinese driver to compete in the sport and he's already got a number of passionate Chinese fans that now have a home hero to cheer on.
Zhou will be the only rookie on the grid next season and will become the ninth driver to step-up from F2 to graduate to Formula One.
Alfa Romeo was the last team on the F1 Grid yet to finalise their driver line-up.