Celebrity Skin Showcase: Sauber F1 Driver Zhou Guanyu
Counter-Strike 2 and Esports titles in general are some of the most popular games in the world and that is true amongst all demographics of people. This has come to light in recent years, with some of the most famous and well-known individuals in the world taking an interest in Esports, most notably athletes. The best example is Neymar, one of the biggest football players in the world but also a huge fan of Counter-Strike. The Al Hilal star was seen in the crowds of multiple events supporting his favorite team FURIA, most recently at the Esports World Cup 2024 in Saudi Arabia.
It is not just footballers who have a keen interest in Counter-Strike, or video gaming in general, as multiple F1 drivers often live on Twitch. The biggest example is McLaren driver Lando Norris who has over 1.7M followers on his Twitch Channel. A lesser-known driver, Zhou Guanyu who races for Kick Sauber has also recently expressed his love for Counter-Strike and specifically Counter-Strike skins in a recent interview. Before taking a look at his Counter-Strike inventory, let’s take a look at his racing career up until this point.
The Chinese driver has been racing in Formula One since 2022, following promotion from F2. In the 2021 Formula 2 Championship season Zhou performed admirably for UNI-Virtuosi Racing, finishing third place in the standings behind Robert Shwartzman and current McLaren driver and F2 winner that year Oscar Piastri. In the 2021 F2 season, Zhou won two feature races, the season opener in Bahrain and race four at Silverstone. Following that strong season, Zhou achieved promotion into F1, the pinnacle of motorsports. Despite being part of the Alpine Driver Academy, the Chinese racer did not join Alpine and instead joined Alfa Romeo alongside Valtteri Bottas. Zhou Guanyu had a strong debut, finishing tenth and gaining his first points in Formula One.
His debut campaign was rather unsteady, suffering five retirements on his way to 18th in the standings, with his best result being an eighth-place finish in the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix. He matched his points total of 2022 in 2023, getting six points in both seasons, with the Chinese driver achieving three ninth-place finishes in 2023, at the Australian, Canadian and Qatar Grand Prix. He remained with the team for 2024, still alongside Finish teammate Valtteri Bottas but following the end of the partnership of Alfa Romeo and Sauber, the team rebranded and became Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber. The 2024 season has been a struggle for the Sauber team so far, with the team failing to garner even a single point up until this point in the season. He currently sits above both Logan Sargeant and Valtteri Bottas in 19th due to his best finish - an 11th place at Bahrain.
As stated, the Chinese F1 driver has an interest in CS2, being seen playing with ex-Liquid and Heroic player Casper “cadiaN” Møller on an Instagram story, with the two seemingly being good friends. In terms of skins, Zhou Guanyu showcased a small portion of his inventory, with the Chinese driver having multiple knives, gloves and more. He displayed two of his knife and glove combos, with one being pink-themed and one blue-themed. The pink combo featured a pair of Sport Gloves | Vice as well as a Nomad Knife | Fade. The striking pink of the Vice gloves complements the clean finish of the Nomad Knife | Fade, creating a beautiful base for an inventory that will cost around $5.5K, with a Minimal Wear pair of Vice gloves worth around $4.5K and the Nomad around $1K.
Matching with his old Alpine Academy colors, the blue combo features Sport Gloves | Amphibious and a Stiletto Knife | Doppler Phase 4. These two skins have varying shades of blue, providing some contrast between the lighter blue poison dart frog-inspired Amphibious gloves and the darker Doppler Phase 4. This contrast creates a gorgeous pair of skins, perfect for anyone looking to start a majority-blue inventory. A Minimal Wear pair of Sport Gloves | Amphibious cost just over $1.5K, with the knife just over $750.
Now, outside of knives and gloves, the Sauber driver uses a Factory New AK-47 | Vulcan on the T-side with four Team Dignitas | Cologne 2014 stickers across the body of the rifle. The AK-47 | Vulcan was added through the Huntsman Collection in 2014 and features a sporty, futuristic-looking design, with the predominant colors being black, white and blue. The Team Dignitas | Cologne 2014 stickers not only add value to the gun but also to the design, with the Dignitas alien logo complementing the futuristic look of the Vulcan finish. This specific AK-47 will set you back around $1.2K, with the AK-47 | Vulcan worth around $1K and the stickers around $50 each.
Zhou also showed off some of his other knives, his Karambit | Gamma Doppler Phase 2 and Butterfly Knife | Slaughter. These are two high-tier knives, costing over $3.5K and $2K respectively. With the immense salary a driver of his caliber receives it isn’t a surprise that he sports such beautiful and rare Counter-Strike skins.
Outside of skins, Zhou Guanyu also gave his thoughts on Counter-Strike Esports and was clearly an avid fan and is actively watching Counter-Strike 2 Esports events. When asked to make a dream team, named “Shanghai Tiger” (his nickname), he had his friend cadiaN on IGL duties, with Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov taking the AWP. He was joined by the Russian’s teammate Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, with the Liquid duo of Justin “jks” Savage and Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken rounding out the roster. Unlike many dream teams, this quintet seemed to have some balance, indicating to us that the Chinese driver had a good understanding of the game and its roles.