Zhou Guanyu questioned the race awareness of Nicholas Latifi after the crash which forced him to retire from the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Alfa Romeo racer came into the race weekend on a high, following confirmation that he will remain on the Formula 1 grid next season. Plus, racing in Asia, the sport's first Chinese driver would have been hoping to make an impression and compete for points.
But he never got the chance, as he was forced to retire from the race in the early stages after contact with Latifi. It happened on the seventh lap, during which the Canadian failed to leave enough room for Zhou and squeezed the Alfa Romeo into the wall despite having the inside line at Turn 5.
Zhou was clearly frustrated as he gesticulated angrily as it became immediately clear that his race was over. He also told his race engineer over team radio that Latifi had "fully squished me into the wall". The Williams driver was able to continue briefly, but the puncture he sustained in that incident also proved fatal to his race.
Explaining what he had done, Latifi later told reporters he did not know Zhou was there. "I need to see the replay because when I exited for Turn 3 on the left-hand side of my mirror I didn't see who was there," he said. "Obviously in the end, I pulled back to the racing line for the braking zone. I guess he was there but I haven't seen the replay.
"I just didn't see who was there because I was so wide he was in a point where the mirrors can't detect. Then we had a puncture and suspension damage so had to retire the car."
But Zhou later seemed a little bemused by that explanation, and questioned how the Canadian could possible have missed the Alfa Romeo on his tail. "I was quite surprised actually because we were side-by-side going into Turn 4," said the rookie.
"The next thing I got, he just fully left-hand-downed me before the corner. I feel it's unnecessary and he knew I was always going to be there because he missed the apex into Turn 3." He went on to say that he felt it would be pointless to talk further with Latifi about the incident, with the Canadian set to drop off the F1 grid at the end of the year.
"It’s more like how the awareness of each driver and when you're racing here, I know the conditions are tricky, but you still have to always leave a space and expect someone's there because he was defending all the time," Zhou added. "And then, why this time did he suddenly fully close the door which is pretty dangerous on my side?"
