Zhou Guanyu recently appeared in a YouTube video for the Sauber F1 team, where he answered some of the most searched Google questions about him. One of the questions that the fans asked him was if he was friends with Sauber teammate Valtteri Bottas.
In reply, the Chinese driver said,
“I hope so. I think so we are more than just friends“.
Zhou has been teammates with Bottas since 2022 when the former made his F1 debut. Bottas had just moved to Sauber (then Alfa Romeo), and the two formed a strong bond early on. Bottas took the Chinese driver under his wing, ensuring he settled well into F1. This is likely why Zhou revealed that Bottas is “more than just a friend” to him.
Another interesting question that Guanyu was asked was about why he selected car number 24. The 25-year-old stated his all-time favorite number is 33 but that was unfortunately taken by the time he joined F1 back in 2022. As a result, he decided to select 24 as he is a huge fan of NBA legend Kobe Bryant.
Bryant wore the number 24 during high school before switching to 33. Since Guanyu could not take 33 when he first joined F1 as it was taken by Max Verstappen [now has 1], he perhaps decided to select the next best alternative, 24.
Hang on, how old is Zhou again?
Zhou answers his most Googled questions! Click the link to learn more about everyone’s favourite Chinese F1 Driver. https://t.co/NzRpaKgkG8 pic.twitter.com/Bp7HVBr2fV
— Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber (@stakef1team_ks) September 27, 2024
During the same video, Guanyu also revealed that he is fluent in “2.5” different languages. Since he is from China, he unsurprisingly speaks Chinese. Having lived in the UK for a while to pursue his racing ambitions, he is also fluent in English.
The third language he claimed he can understand fairly well is Italian. Since he cannot speak the language, he claimed he is fluent in 2.5 languages.
Last but not least, he also revealed his cat’s name, which is “Sweetcorn” when translated into English. His cat is quite famous as it has over 60k followers on Instagram. To showcase his love for his cat, he also featured it on his special helmet for the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.
