Sauber has decided to replace both its drivers, Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas for the 2025 season. Instead, they will bring in experienced Nico Hulkenberg and current F2 championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto to drive for the team.

This marks the end of Zhou’s time with the team after a tough 2024 season, during which neither he nor Bottas scored any points, as their car was by far the slowest on the grid.

While Bottas generally performed better than Zhou, the Chinese driver had a strong race in Las Vegas last weekend, where Sauber introduced upgrades to the car. He made the most of the new floor and updated diffuser, outqualifying Bottas for the third time this year and finishing in 13th place, five positions ahead of his teammate.

Reflecting on the weekend, Zhou said that the upgrades gave him a much-needed boost in confidence, allowing him to fight closer to his potential after a long stretch of frustration. Still, he admitted the year was disappointing, especially since the team didn’t bring as many updates as expected, which made it harder to show what he could do.

Now, Zhou is preparing for his final two races with Sauber, but his future in Formula 1 is unclear. He is unlikely to find another race seat for next year but could stay in the sport as a reserve driver. 

Reports suggest that the Chinese driver, who was part of Ferrari’s Driver Academy from 2014 to 2018, could return to the Italian team as their reserve driver next year. While this would mean stepping away from a race seat, it could still keep him involved in the sport and possibly open doors for the future. 

Zhou himself has expressed interest in this opportunity, seeing it as a positive step toward the next phase of his career. He also hinted that the move to Ferrari might be announced soon as the Italian team would like to give him the reserve driver role.

"We're talking to several teams and, of course, Ferrari remains one of the teams really interested in me," he said quoted by Motorsport.com.

"We need to see, obviously there's a lot of things coming up with the next few weekends for us to make a decision, but it's clear we are going through all the options we have and seeing where we are.

"From my side, I don't want to commit to the future just yet because I want to make sure everything is set down and is clear, and have a massive commitment to the next project.

"Hopefully something will be happening and decided soon. I think somewhere around the next few weeks I will have a clear idea."