“`html
On Thursday, Guanyu Zhou made his debut in a Ferrari Formula 1 car. The Chinese driver, who has been a test and reserve driver for the Scuderia since the start of the season, had not yet had the opportunity to actually take a seat in the cockpit; he mainly worked in the simulator to further develop the SF-25. He tested the rain tires for the upcoming Formula 1 season at the Fiorano test circuit.
The 26-year-old Guanyu Zhou was in action early Thursday morning. As it was an official Pirelli test, he was allowed to drive the SF-25, Ferrari’s current car. Normally, teams are only allowed to test with older models, during so-called TPC days (Testing of Previous Cars). For this occasion, Pirelli mounted special rain tires on the car, while Ferrari used the setup to simulate the aerodynamic load of 2026.
The asphalt was artificially wetted in the morning, so that Zhou could test with both full rain tires and intermediate prototypes. Before he started the runs on rain tires, he first drove an installation lap on slicks. On Friday, the Chinese driver will hand over the baton to regular driver Charles Leclerc, who will also try out the new rain tires.
“`
