Williams tipped to raid F1 rival for ‘logical option’ to replace Logan Sargeant

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Zhou Guanyu of Alfa Romeo is a ‘logical option’ to replace Logan Sargeant at Williams if the American loses his seat on the Formula 1 grid after his difficult rookie campaign.

That is according to Richard Bradley, who ‘can see’ Zhou driving with Williams in 2024 if they drop Sargeant. The 24-year-old is under contract at Alfa Romeo for just the rest of 2023. But the Sauber-run outfit intends to discuss a new contract with the Chinese driver for next year.

Team representative Alunni Bravi confirmed earlier in August that Alfa Romeo and Zhou will discuss his future there soon. Sauber’s intention is to have continuity in their cockpits if each element aligns. The team will operate under the Sauber name again through 2024 and 2025.

Zhou Guanyu is out of contract at Alfa Romeo after 2023

Zhou signed a new contract with Alfa Romeo last September that locked the driver down for the 2023 season. It further sees the first full-time Chinese driver in F1 history earn $500k-a-year (£7.5k-a/w). While his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, receives $10m-a-year (£151.5k-a/w).

Bottas is under no pressure for his seat with the Finn under contract to Sauber through the 2025 season. It guarantees his time driving for the team until Audi take over the entry from the 2026 season. But Zhou does not enjoy the same luxuries as he battles for his F1 career.

Alfa Romeo brought Zhou into F1 for the 2022 season after the Shanghai native finished the 2021 Formula 2 season in third. It was his third year driving in the feeder series and yielded four wins. He won an even split of feature and sprint races at the UNI-Virtuosi Racing squad.

But with Zhou currently out of contract at the end of his year, Bradley can see him moving to Williams and replacing Sargeant. The 22-year-old has endured a difficult rookie campaign so far this year. He is yet to score a single point while his teammate, Alex Albon, has scored 15.

Zhou Guanyu tipped to replace Logan Sargeant at Williams

Albon’s efforts have Williams seventh in the constructor’s championship ahead of Haas (11), Alfa Romeo (9) and AlphaTauri (3). But Sargeant has not finished any Grand Prix higher than P11. A hydraulics problem saw him retire from the Dutch GP after a personal-best qualifying.

Sargeant reached Q3 for the first time in his fledgling F1 career at Zandvoort before dipping his Williams onto a damper line and crashing. He then crashed out of the Dutch GP at speed. And Bradley believes Sargeant is now fighting for his F1 career with Zhou a likely successor.

“I can see Zhou going to Williams,” Bradley suggested on On Track GP. “I can see him taking Logan’s seat. Because we know that Williams, obviously, we’ve got the new management. But, historically, they’ve always been a team that’s needed a bit of external budget.

“Zhou’s situation with Alfa, obviously we’ve got a few rumours going around now about that. But Alfa are going towards Audi [and] the Chinese economy is struggling quite a bit at the minute – I think that’s been well documented in normal news.

“I expect that’s what is hurting Zhou’s negotiations at the minute, there’s a lot of uncertainty there. But I expect Williams as a team, if they get rid of Logan, then Zhou is a logical option.”

While Bradley can see Williams raiding Alfa Romeo should they drop Sargeant, Zhou wants to stay at Alfa Romeo. He believes there is ‘no better place to be’ than driving with Sauber ahead of Audi entering F1. So, the Chinese driver sees signing a new contract as a ‘priority’.