2024 Formula 1 driver rankings #19: Zhou · RaceFans

Over his third season in F1 Zhou demonstrated he is a capable driver who can be relied on to bring his car home, but too often fails to deliver over a single flying lap. Although he took the team’s only points score of the season, there was no surprise when he (like his team mate) was shown the door at the end of the year.

Zhou probably didn’t expect to face so tough a season after the first race, where he climbed from 17th to finish one place outside the points. The team was hampered by problems with its pit stop equipment in the opening races and had good reason to expect better days ahead once that was sorted.

However Zhou compromised his chances of picking up points at this early stage with a series of incidents: A crash in Jeddah, damaging his car in qualifying at Melbourne and a mistake on his flying lap in China. Canada was a low point, Zhou crashing twice during the build-up to qualifying.

He usually started races behind his team mate, which left him at an immediate disadvantage. In Zhou’s defence, Sauber’s updates usually went to his more experienced team mate, though at times this didn’t seem to help Valtteri Bottas all that much.

This was particularly true during the middle part of the season, at which point Sauber almost invariably had the slowest car, having been out-developed by their rivals. When that improved later in the year, Zhou produced a couple of noteworthy performances.

His points-scoring run in Qatar was the most obvious, though it bears pointing out his team mate was hit by a rival early on. Even so Zhou had out-qualified Bottas and put a pass on Tsunoda on his way to an excellent eighth place. Zhou’s less-heralded and unrewarded drive in Las Vegas was another late highlight, as he passed Franco Colapinto on the final lap.

He usually proved a safe pair of hands on race day, though his spin during the United States Grand Prix was a noteworthy exception. That aside, Zhou’s season was more disappointing than poor.

RaceFans’ driver rankings are based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round as well as other factors.

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