Cadillac racing in F1 with Andretti

[SealTheRealDeal]

I think they should seek f1 experience only so-far as to avoid an actual rookie on the grounds that a team that is still figuring out F1 isn't going to be much help to a rookie driver figuring out F1.

Zhou would also be a safe pair of hands (in terms of bringing the car home in one piece), with enough F1 experience. He should certainly be considered if Drugovich is still a serious contender, based on their relative performances as teammates in 2021. Slap a Buick logo on his helmet and GM will easily re-coup the entry fee...

Regarding Zhou, there are two issues here that go beyond racing.

I don't see how General Motors would benefit from having a Chinese driver in their car, from a market perspective. Furthermore, Graeme Lowdon has very close ties to Zhou, which implies a significant conflict of interest, which is typically frowned upon by large companies like GM.

China typically accounts for nearly a third of GM's annual sales, Buick (one of GM's brands) in particular is huge in China despite being nearly non-existent in GM's traditional North American market. So the marketing argument for signing Zhou is probably greater for GM than it is for most other manufacturers (of the car companies involved in F1 I think only VW has a larger presence in China).

Now the potential conflict of interest is a factor to consider, but it's not an insurmountable one. Toto was Bottas' manager up until 2017, simply ending that relationship was enough to get Merc's stakeholders to sign off on not only hiring Bottas to replace Rosberg, but paying a pretty large additional sum to buy him out of his Williams contract.

[kptaylor]

But why Zhou in the first place? Mediocre career, no real flash of potential. I'd focus on better veterans (Bottas, Perez) and possibly promising rookies. However, if they know they going to struggle, I'd personally focus on veterans who are known to provide quality feedback and can help the engineering team improve the car.