Prema Racing has confirmed that Chinese driver Guanyu Zhou will stay in the team for the upcoming Europe FIA F3 season. The 19-year old driver will race for the team for the second consecutive year after finishing eighth in 2017 and will be joined by new team mates.
Following the announcement of rookies Robert Shwartzman and Marcus Armstrong and the comeback of Ralf Aron after a year in Hitech GP, the Italian team Prema Racing has confirmed the stay of Guanyu Zhou in the team for one more season.
Zhou and Prema have been together since the young Chinese driver made his debut in single-seaters, in 2015, when he raced in the ADAC F4 for Prema and finished second on his rookie season. He later moved to FIA F3, where he drove for Motopark and returned to Prema in 2017.
On the last season, Zhou managed to finish 8th on the final standings and finished five races on the podium. With this announcement, the four-car line-up of the team for the next season is now complete, and Zhou will be the only driver from last year to stay in the team. Callum Ilott already confirmed a move to GP3, and Mick Schumacher‘s and Maximilian Günther‘s futures are yet to be known.
Zhou said: “I am really happy to be joining Prema for the 2018 season. The last two years of work have paid off for me and the team has been successful too, so I’m looking forward to a great year together. I feel more than ready for the coming season.”
The 2018 FIA F3 season, the last one before the union with GP3 series will start the 12th of May, with the iconic Pau GP as the opening round of the championship.