There has been no little wait for the home crowd and their local hero Zhou Guanyu but what a moment it will be when, finally, this weekend he becomes the first Chinese driver to compete at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.

Already the star of a ­documentary, the only driver from China to compete in an F1 race is the main draw for a meeting that sold out in minutes.

This race has not been held since 2019 because of the pandemic and while the 24-year-old Zhou made his F1 debut in 2022, with the Alfa Romeo (now Sauber) team, he has had to wait till his third season to race on a track in the city where he was born and where he has never before competed in a single-seater.

The subject of a feature-length documentary The First One, released on Friday, Zhou is ­however no stranger to the 3.4-mile circuit.

He attended the first race held here in 2004, as a five-year-old Fernando Alonso fan.

This week he sat next to the Spaniard during a press ­conference in Shanghai.

"My first race I watched back in 2004," he said. "The man sitting next to me was racing. For me it's been 20 years waiting for this grand prix and let's say this journey has been not extremely easy."

After he made it to F1, the race was repeatedly tentatively ­scheduled only to be cancelled due to Covid restrictions, and Zhou's relief at ­finally being able to race at home was palpable.

"Once in F1 every year, when you realise that the home race is not happening, two years in a row, we try to kind of do your best to maintain your seat and then to be here, today…" he said with obvious pleasure.

This has not been plain sailing. ­