Formula E chief wants to welcome ‘quality’ F1 driver to his series next year

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The future of a handful of drivers on the current Formula 1 grid could be up in the air over the next few months as decisions are taken on their futures.

It is expected that American driver Logan Sargeant will be replaced at Williams after underperforming in the first half of this season, while Kevin Magnussen’s future at Haas is also up in the air after Oliver Bearman was announced and Esteban Ocon has been linked to the team.

Valtteri Bottas is another free agent who could make a switch to another team, provided Sauber chose not to keep him beyond this season. With only one seat available at Sauber next year after they announced Nico Hulkenberg there have been questions over who might keep theirs at the Swiss team.

Zhou Guanyu’s future has been up in the air since the start of the season and the Chinese driver could face the F1 axe if he does not find another seat on the grid. Zhou is hugely popular in China having attracted a lot of attention in his home race earlier this year.

According to a report by Auto Hebdo, Zhou could make the switch to another series if he runs out of options.

Zhou Guanyu could make Formula E switch

F1 drivers switching to the all-electric series is not an uncommon move, with former driver Jean-Eric Vergne going on to achieve championship success when he was moved aside for Max Verstappen at the end of 2014.

Zhou has been regarded as a ‘quality’ driver in F1 despite ostensibly being one of the last ‘pay drivers’ to have a seat on the grid in recent years.

Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds ‘would like to welcome’ Zhou into the all-electric series, according to the report.

There was speculation that he could return to Alpine, where he was part of the Driver Academy before driving for Sauber, but that door has been shut since the arrival of former team boss Flavio Briatore.

Formula E move better in the long term for Zhou Guanyu

Zhou has yet to do anything to catch the eye of prospective teams, having started the first three races of the season at the back of the grid.

At the Saudi Arabian GP he missed out on qualifying entirely due to a crash in Free Practice 3 and has so far failed to capitalise on the early promise he showed in Bahrain when he came close to a Q3 appearance.

Having scored a total of six points for Sauber last year, Zhou has scored zero points at the halfway point in 2024.

A move to Formula E would therefore likely be a better career move considering the series recently returned to China with the Shanghai E-Prix, while the Chinese market is heavily invested in electric cars.