Early Misses Haunt Stake F1 as Zhou Eyes Top 10 Finish

“Despite early setbacks, Guanyu Zhou remains optimistic about securing a top 10 finish for Stake F1 this season.

Stake F1 has yet to score any points this season. Guanyu Zhou is convinced that the team could have achieved this early in the season with its inherent capability, but faced several hurdles. He acknowledges, however, his hopes of aiming for points in the remaining ten races.

“I would say that in terms of results, it feels somewhat reflective of where we are. But we’ve missed quite a few opportunities, especially at the start of the season. I think on several occasions, we could have had a chance of finishing around the tenth place,” Zhou notes.

“With the issues we’ve had, which I won’t detail, in the pits, slow stops, it somewhat removed a lot of opportunities and potential to score points.”

“Therefore, I would say that at the start of the season, we had many more chances to compete for points. But then, in the four or five races just before the summer break, it felt like that’s where we were, unfortunately not competitive enough and not where we hoped to be.”

“However, I look forward to the remaining ten races, definitely, because for me, having finally the same package and also having new developments for this race, as well as for other races as a team, I think it gives us better hopes of getting back into form.”

Reunion with Mattia Binotto

Stake now has a new leader in the person of Mattia Binotto, and Zhou has had discussions with him. However, he was already familiar with Binotto: “Mattia is someone I knew from when I was at the Ferrari Academy.”

“Because he was part of the racing team. And then he only officially started in Hinwil this week, on Monday. So there are a lot of things, a lot of work he needs to extract and also review behind the scenes.”

“So I think he’s going to have two quite busy months, but I’m looking forward to working with him. I’ve already had a few discussions about him. I think he can really bring us his knowledge from the other team. I think that will be very beneficial.”

And the Chinese driver confirmed that the topic of the steering wheel for 2025 has also been discussed: “We’re talking about it. And of course, we’ve talked about it. It’s one of the topics that will be discussed over the next few weeks and will clarify what my place is for the remaining races, next season, and beyond.”