Zhou Guanyu has denied having a boosted chance of landing a seat at the Cadillac F1 team due to his connections to its team principal.
Zhou is seeking a route back to the F1 grid after being dropped by Stake at the end of the 2024 campaign.
Cadillac will join F1 next year as an 11th team, opening two more seats on the grid. So far, a number of candidates have been linked with the drive, including Zhou.
The Chinese driver is managed by Graeme Lowdon, who late last year was named the team principal of the Cadillac outfit.
Despite having a close connection to Lowdon, Zhou denied it increases his hopes of being signed to the American team.
“I’m really happy, of course, that Graeme is the principal of Cadillac,” Zhou told media including RacingNews365.
“But that doesn’t mean I’m definitely linked with the team because, at the end of the day, the overall decision is taken by different people.”
Zhou is currently carrying out reserve driver duties at Ferrari this year, returning to the Italian squad at which he was once a junior member.
As he seeks a return to the F1 grid in the near future, the 25-year-old asserted it is not distracting him from his role at Ferrari.
“I’m just doing my thing with Ferrari and trying to focus on the job here, and when there’s a chance, I’m always going to be fully committed to it,” he said.
“My ultimate goal is to be back on the grid but I think it’s nice to have a season, after a very difficult and strange season, to take a step down.
“A lot of drivers on the grid now are having very long contract extensions. Hopefully I can be one of them in the future.”
