Shanghai native Zhou first raced in Europe in 2010 following success in Chinese karting competitions.
He went on to move to English city Sheffield two years later, at the age of 12, to give his career the impetus it needed, but the cultural shift was substantial.
“It was a bit of a shock, coming from a huge city like Shanghai,” the current Sauber driver said. “Plus Sheffield is all the way up north and there’s no summer really. But still, my mechanics dressed in shorts. And this is a British thing, all the way up to F3, F2… whatever the weather, shorts and t-shirts.
“I enjoyed living in Yorkshire, I could focus purely on racing and going to school, learning the language. I made some good friends, some good memories with the team.
“I moved with my mum, I was so young – I couldn’t live by myself. She looked after everything. The support was important because for the first few months, going to school, I didn’t really know what everyone was talking about because of the language issue. So that was tough.
“But compared with Shanghai and even London, everyone in Yorkshire is super-chilled. The pace of life is less hurried. At school the teachers were really relaxed, helping me to improve in every single subject. I have great memories.”
Zhou had solid results, including winning the Rotax Max Euro Trophy and being crowned in Super 1 National Rotax Max, both in the Junior category. However, the level of competition was dramatically higher than what he had been used to.
Source: Autosport