The Most Famous
RACING DRIVERS from China
This page contains a list of the greatest Chinese Racing Drivers. The pantheon dataset contains 1,080 Racing Drivers, 2 of which were born in China. This makes China the birth place of the 37th most number of Racing Drivers behind Egypt, and Malaysia.
Top 2
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Chinese Racing Drivers of all time. This list of famous Chinese Racing Drivers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Guanyu Zhou (b. 1999)
With an HPI of 44.32, Guanyu Zhou is the most famous Chinese Racing Driver. His biography has been translated into 43 different languages on wikipedia.
Zhou Guanyu (Chinese: 周冠宇; pinyin: Zhōu Guànyǔ, pronounced [ʈʂóʊ kwân.ỳ]; born 30 May 1999) is a Chinese racing driver, who most recently competed in Formula One from 2022 to 2024. Zhou remains the only Chinese driver to compete in Formula One. Born in Shanghai, Zhou began karting aged eight before moving to Sheffield in 2012 to compete internationally. Graduating to junior formulae in 2014, Zhou finished runner-up in the 2015 Italian F4 Championship. After three seasons in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, as well as a development driver role in Formula E for Techeetah in 2017–18, Zhou competed in the FIA Formula 2 Championship from 2019 to 2021 for Virtuosi, finishing third in his final season. A member of the Ferrari Driver Academy from 2014 to 2018, and the Alpine Academy—formerly the Renault Sport Academy—from 2019 to 2021, he served as the test driver for Renault and Alpine in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Zhou signed for Alfa Romeo in 2022 to partner Valtteri Bottas, scoring his first career point on debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Retaining his seat for his 2023 campaign, he scored further points finishes in Australia, Spain and Qatar. He remained at the re-branded Sauber in 2024, where he scored the team's only points finish with the C44—at the Qatar Grand Prix—before leaving at the end of the season, having achieved two fastest laps and 16 championship points in Formula One.
2. Ma Qinghua (b. 1987)
With an HPI of 37.06, Ma Qinghua is the 2nd most famous Chinese Racing Driver. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Ma Qinghua (simplified Chinese: 马青骅; traditional Chinese: 馬青驊) (born 25 December 1987) is a Chinese racing driver currently competing in the World Touring Car Cup with Cyan Performance Lynk & Co. Ma became the first Chinese driver to win an FIA World Championship race when he won race two of the 2014 FIA WTCC Race of Russia. He has also previously competed in the World Touring Car Championship, GP2, a few practice sessions in Formula 1, and Formula E.
People
Pantheon has 2 people classified as Chinese racing drivers born between 1987 and 1999. Of these 2, 2 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Chinese racing drivers include Guanyu Zhou, and Ma Qinghua.
