The 2024 Abu Dhabi GP was most likely Zhou Guanyu’s final race in F1. Having spent three seasons with Sauber, the Chinese driver did not find a race seat for 2025 and is reportedly in talks with other F1 teams for a reserve role. Nevertheless, Zhou is trying to enjoy his off-track life as he recently competed in a gaming competition.
The 25-year-old went up against the fabled Counter-Strike player Oleksandr Kostyliev also known as ‘s1mple’. It was at the Perfect World Shanghai Major, where the Ukrainian’s team [Team Hai] went up against Zhou‘s team [Team Bye] made up of local eSports players.
Despite s1mple’s expertise, he could not get the better of Zhou and crew’s creativity in the gameplay, as they eventually beat the CS maestro’s team 15-9. Still, Zhou clicked some pictures with Kostyliev and posted them on his Instagram.
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“What a cool experience to play the show match on the final stage with all the goats!”, Zhou wrote in the caption. He also posted a video of the gameplay that showed some of the kills his team registered in their match-up.
This was basically a show match before the actual final of the particular event began. So, the organizers spiced it up with a different format and changing game conditions, which could have caught s1mple’s team off-guard.
