{"id":405048,"date":"2024-06-21T21:45:56","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T21:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=405048"},"modified":"2024-06-22T00:06:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T00:06:11","slug":"aussies-f1-hopes-dented-by-fresh-2-1-trillion-hurdle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=405048","title":{"rendered":"Aussie's F1 hopes dented by fresh $2.1 trillion hurdle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Doohan<\/a>'s long-awaited F1<\/a> \ufeffdebut is under threat after an out-of-contract rival was linked with a move to his Alpine<\/a> squad.<\/p>\n

When Esteban Ocon<\/a>'s exit from the Enstone team was confirmed earlier this month<\/a>, the Aussie shot to the top of the list of potential replacements.<\/p>\n

\ufeffBut ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix<\/a>, Zhou Guanyu \u2013 who has yet to re-sign for the Sauber team \u2013 has been linked with an Alpine switch.<\/p>\n

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Veteran F1 journalist Craig Slater said signing Zhou \ufeffwould make sense from a commercial point of view, as the French brand looks to enter the Chinese market.<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/p>\n

Alpine is the performance arm of the partially French state-owned Renault \ufeffbrand.<\/p>\n

According to Statista, the automotive industry in China made up about 11 per cent of the country's GDP in 2021 – about $2.1 trillion.<\/p>\n

Like Doohan, Zhou was also a member of Alpine's junior driver academy.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"There's this little clutch of drivers who are available and on the market at the moment," Slater said on Sky Sports F1.<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/p>\n

"Carlos Sainz has had talks with Alpine, but I'm told that's a no go. Valtteri Bottas has also had some discussions with Alpine, but those talks did not progress.<\/p>\n

"What about Mick Schumacher? He is driving in endurance racing for the team. I'm told he is down the pecking order in terms of getting a Formula 1 race seat for them next year.<\/p>\n

"One name which keeps coming back is Zhou Guanyu.<\/p>\n

"There's also some commercial reasons why he might be desirable for (Alpine). For a start, it exposes Alpine to the enormous Chinese market, which is the biggest automobile market in the world.<\/p>\n

\"Zhou<\/p>\n

"There has also been a recent car alliance between Renault, which is Alpine's parent company, and [Chinese company] Geely.<\/p>\n

"That could be a big factor."<\/p>\n

But should Zhou be signed, there might still be room for a Doohan promotion given the team's other driver, Pierre Gasly, is yet to re-sign with the squad.<\/p>\n

Much of the movement in the driver marke\ufefft is expected to be triggered by confirmation from Carlos Sainz of where he'll drive in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"Mick<\/p>\n

The \ufeffthree-time grand prix winner will be ousted from his Ferrari seat at the end of the season to make way for Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Sainz \ufeffseems most likely to join Alex Albon at Williams, although is still a chance to end up at the struggling Sauber outfit, which will morph into a factory Audi outfit for 2026.<\/p>\n

Doohan is Alpine's reserve \ufeffdriver this season.<\/p>\n

The F1 season continues at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona this weekend. The race will get underway at 11pm Sunday.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack Doohan's long-awaited F1 \ufeffdebut is under threat after an out-of-contract rival was linked with a move to his Alpine squad. When Esteban Ocon's exit […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":379028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=405048"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":405052,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405048\/revisions\/405052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/379028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=405048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=405048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=405048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}