Zhou Guanyu: racing childhood F1 heroes for China

F1 Beyond The Grid

karenellenbevan

Automotive, Sports, News, Sports News, Leisure

4.7 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2022

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Zhou Guanyu’s route to F1 was epic. As a child he watched the Chinese Grand Prix from the grandstands and dreamed of joining his racing heroes. But with no footsteps to follow in, he had to plot his own path. Before he was even a teenager he moved from his home city of Shanghai to the other side of the world to test his talent behind the wheel. Fighting homesickness and intimidation from his racing rivals, he proved himself. Zhou tells Tom Clarkson about the sacrifices, key decisions, victories and personal loss he experienced along the way. Now he’s racing his childhood heroes as the first Chinese driver to compete in Formula 1. Zhou has already made history for his country and, as he says himself, he’s only just getting started.

This episode is sponsored by:

Shopify: sign up for a FREE fourteen-day trial at shopify.co.uk/grid

Athletic Greens: get a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase at athleticgreens.com/f1btg

Calm: visit calm.com/grid for 40% off unlimited access to Calm’s entire library

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I think that the holidays feel like frozen noses. I love walking with the dog for long periods of time.
0:10.0	Hopefully it's snowing and you've got to wrap up warm. So I think a frozen nose is a sweaty armpit
0:15.0	because your wrapped up so warm but then you're climbing hamps and heath and you get to the top
0:20.0	and you're like, and then you can see the breath but then your nose is still freezing to touch.
0:25.0	Joy in every sip with red carp's now back at Starbucks.
0:32.0	F1 is all about being first, making history, breaking records, taking risks to do things that most others can only dream of.
0:42.0	At the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix in his home city of Shanghai, a five-year-old Joe Gwanyu saw what it takes to be first.
0:51.0	Fernando Lazo, number seven victory of the season.
0:55.0	And Dremt of doing it himself. It had never been number four. No Chinese driver had ever raced in Formula One.
1:03.0	But after 17 years of upheaval, home sickness, loss and uncertainty, Joe became the first.
1:10.0	I lost myself a little bit because I couldn't speak a word because I sat in tears.
1:15.0	It sounds pretty crazy to be the first one of my country because we have so many people back in my country.
1:21.0	I've been through this journey, it's very tough. It's like a very rollercoaster ride, it's not the smoothest one.
1:26.0	I was just very happy to be that person able to represent them.
1:30.0	Welcome to F1 Beyond the Grid with me Tom Clarkson.
1:34.0	Joe's F1 story is unique and epic. Before he was even a teenager, he swapped Shanghai for Sheffield,
1:42.0	an industrial city in the north of England. He was thousands of miles away from home,
1:47.0	but driven by a desire to be like his hero, Fernando Alonzo, he raced and won as he rose from karting to Formula Two.
1:55.0	It was there that he learned what it means to lose a friend on the racetrack.
1:59.0	And it was there that he proved to Alfa Romeo that he was ready for Formula One.
2:04.0	A history-making debut in Bahrain 2022 underlined that fact. China's first F1 driver,
2:11.0	and its first point scorer.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from karenellenbevan, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of karenellenbevan and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.