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Zhou Guanyu will serve as one of Ferrari's Formula 1 reserve drivers for the 2025 season, having lost his Sauber seat at the end of last year.
Zhou actually started his car racing career as a Ferrari junior back in 2014 before later switching to Renault's young driver academy.
He made his F1 debut in 2022 with Sauber and spent three seasons with the team alongside Valtteri Bottas, earning seven points finishes with increasingly uncompetitive machinery.
Sauber dropped both drivers for Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto for 2025, leaving Zhou without a seat, having never been in serious contention for a race seat elsewhere.
A return to Ferrari as its third driver has been rumoured since it became clear his future at Sauber was in major doubt last year.
Ferrari has now confirmed Zhou will join existing Ferrari reserve Antonio Giovinazzi (also previously jettisoned by Sauber after three years) in the pool of drivers it can call upon should it need a stand-in for race drivers Charles Leclerc or Lewis Hamilton.
Zhou doesn't have any other 2025 racing programme confirmed yet while Giovinazzi will continue to represent Ferrari in the World Endurance Championship this year.
While not part of the announcement, it's possible Ferrari could also call upon its protege Ollie Bearman who is making his full-time F1 debut with Haas this year.
Mercedes did the same when it called George Russell up from Williams over its actual reserve drivers Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries when it needed a replacement for Lewis Hamilton at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.
Ferrari will need to look outside of its reserve roster to complete the now four mandatory rookie FP1 outings.
Last week Dino Beganovic, racing in Formula 2 this year with Hitech, made his F1 testing debut with Ferrari at Barcelona alongside Giovinazzi.
The 21-year-old would appear to be the most obvious pick within Ferrari's own junior ranks although it could call upon simulator driver Arthur Leclerc, who made his FP1 debut in Abu Dhabi last year, or Antonio Fuoco, who participated in the post-season Abu Dhabi test with Ferrari.
