“He was the first one to be open in that way” Zhou Guanyu praises Lewis Hamilton for ‘being himself’ despite external pressure
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Lewis Hamilton (L) | Zhou Guanyu (R)
Zhou Guanyu has had a tumultuous debut season, but one can say that he has weathered the storm well and even impressed on many occasions. The Chinese driver scored points in his debut race and has done so on 2 more occasions, currently sitting 17th in the championship. Of course, he has been thoroughly outclassed by Valtteri Bottas on most occasions, but that is to be expected.
He has retired 5 times during this season, which is obviously not going to help his performance. But regardless of that, most would agree he has done well. Alfa Romeo are pretty much a given for 6th place now, with them neither challenging the teams in front (Alpine & McLaren) nor being particularly challenged by those behind them (Haas & AlphaTauri).
Zhou considers Lewis Hamilton to be a help during the season, and praised the Briton for how he deals with pressure: “The way he was dealing with the pressures, is insane. I feel like what Lewis experienced in some stages, I experienced at the beginning of the year before the first race. So I can feel how tough he went through it. He’s been through that while he was fighting for several F1 titles.”
Also Read: “I wasn’t too happy”: Zhou Guanyu reveals what he did not like about his helmet cam at Bahrain GP
Zhou Guanyu relates to Lewis Hamilton due to ‘similar experiences’
While Zhou Guanyu admitted that Lewis Hamilton hasn’t given him any real advice (because it is a competition), he revealed that the two stay in touch, and their ‘similar experiences’ mean that the British driver knows what Zhou has been through, especially with racist comments and abuse:
“I feel like I’ve experienced what he experienced maybe two years ago when he was standing out and getting all the racist comments, especially last year. I was experiencing last year at the same time but kind of in a different area of our career, so these things are similar.” and the Alfa Romeo driver went further, calling Hamilton the ‘leader’ of the drivers, as he is trying to lead the sport to a better future.
The two also share a passion for fashion, with Zhou saying that he always liked the 7-time world champion’s fashion sense even when people were suspicious and like Hamilton, he wanted to be himself in the paddock. Not just that, but he also plans to launch a clothing line: “That’s definitely on the plan in the future. Because I really want to make my own brand in the future, just purely fashion designing stuff.”
He also feels that F1 is a ‘big family sport’ and as such people have to be understanding, accepting and positive about other people and their experiences. There has often been a lot of hate for Lewis Hamilton solely based on his ‘outspoken’ personality and off-track celebrity lifestyle, and Zhou wants that to end.
Also Read: “I’ve been completely released,” Zhou Guanyu reveals he has no more ties with Alpine
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)