Formula 1 hasn't always favoured Antonio Giovinazzi
In 2016, Autosport named him a future Ferrari driver. Twice now, the Scuderia has chosen others ahead of him.
At the end of 2016, Antonio Giovinazzi was a name on the tips of tongues.
And rightfully so; he was an Italian who’d just finished runner up in the GP2 championship with an Italian team.
Formula 1 lost the presence of an Italian driver when Jarno Trulli retired at the end of 2011 - and now here was a young-gun, who Ferrari had their eyes on, promising to do great things.
Ferrari saw his potential and signed him as a test driver in December 2016. One of Formula 1’s most respected news publications, Autosport, saw the potential too.
“The team could view Giovinazzi up as a potential safeguard against future upheaval in its driver line-up, given current race drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen are both out of contract at the end of 2017,” an article about his Ferrari signing said.
But that dream never eventuated.
When Kimi Raikkonen left Ferrari at the end of 2018, Charles Leclerc stepped in and when Sebastian Vettel announced he would depart earlier this year, Carlos Sainz was chosen to succeed him.
Now, Giovinazzi enters 2020 with Alfa Romeo Racing - a team which hasn’t yet shown a capacity to score consistent points. So, how did the post-GP2 dream morph into today’s situation, which leaves Giovinazzi with no clear path to a top team?
Well, just as things hit a high for Giovinazzi is where they all went wrong. That high moment was the 2017 Australian Grand Prix. As Ferrari’s third driver, he was standing by in Melbourne if anything went wrong.
And something did go wrong. Sauber, a Ferrari customer team, had Pascal Wehrlein pull out of the race due to concerns about his fitness levels. Giovinazzi was handed the late call-up and a shock Formula 1 debut.
He finished 12th, heralded as an exceptionally impressive result. Sauber F1 team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said she was “very surprised” with Giovinazzi’s performance, Autosport reported.
Giovinazzi described that weekend as a “little bit strange”. He only learnt he would be racing moments before Saturday’s free practice session and just mere hours later, he qualified about two-tenths behind regular Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson.
“A really great Grand Prix from my side, really good memories for me,” he explained. “A dream come true”.
But, while this was a truly phenomenal moment, it was just two weeks later things would go awfully wrong. Giovinazzi was called in again to replace Wehrlein for the Chinese Grand Prix.
After missing all of Friday’s running due to bad weather, the Italian had just one practice session to prepare for the race. During Saturday’s afternoon qualifying, Giovinazzi had a heavy crash.
And while that’s bad, it didn’t end there. On Sunday, during the race, he did it again.
“I think it was an experience and then, of course, was not the result that we wanted, but then I think from mistake, the important [thing] was to improve after that,” he said.
After China, Giovinazzi returned to testing duties with his reputation dented. When people recall his Sauber stand-ins, they remember the China crashes and not Australia’s admirable accomplishment.
He spent 2017 driving in Friday practice sessions for Haas before switching to what is now Alfa Romeo Racing in 2018.
But, that change of team highlighted a new problem for Giovinazzi, who was still trying to find solid footing somewhere in the Formula 1 fraternity.
Alfa Romeo’s second driver for 2018 was Charles Leclerc, a Ferrari Driver Academy member who had done one-better than Giovinazzi in 2017’s GP2 series, winning the championship and subsequently the full-time drive.
An impressive debut season in Formula 1 from Leclerc obliterated any memory of Giovinazzi’s GP2 days and secured the former’s place firmly as next in the Ferrari succession.
It was hardly a fair fight; Leclerc was able to prove his worth to Ferrari through 21 races - Giovinazzi had simulator tests and practice sessions to show his talent. He hadn’t yet had a full-time drive in Formula 1.
But, that changed when Leclerc left for Ferrari, it created a spot at Alfa Romeo in 2019 for Giovinazzi. He would partner Kimi Raikkonen, with Marcus Ericsson dropping to the team’s third driver.
But, the Italian’s reintroduction to racing after two years of testing wasn’t easy. “I think [I was] struggling a lot in the first part of the season, just because I was missing wheel-to-wheel, racing configuration,” he explained.
It took eight races for Giovinazzi to score points. He’d do it again three more times in the second half of the 2019 season, but the season, overall, was nothing special. He had just 14 points compared to team-mate Kimi Raikkonen’s 43 by the end of the year.
“I’m really happy to work with him and I will continue work with him also this year, because he’s a driver who I can learn a lot of things and I can grow up like a driver,” Giovinazzi said of Raikkonen.
The underwhelming 2019 season may have played a large part in Ferrari’s decision not to give Giovinazzi a race seat for 2021 following Sebastian Vettel’s decision to part ways with Ferrari.
Promoting Giovinazzi would have left Ferrari exposed with regard to the experience of their drivers. In 2021, Leclerc would enter only his fourth season in Formula 1, while 2021 would be Giovinazzi’s third.
Giovinazzi was widely reported by many outlets as one of the three drivers who Ferrari considered for the coveted seat, alongside Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz, who was eventually chosen. (Sainz has five years of Formula 1 experience under his belt already).
Alfa Romeo would not answer questions about Giovinazzi’s relationship with Ferrari for this story, but Giovinazzi still spoke about his goals for the 2020 season, where he’ll remain with Alfa Romeo.
One of those goals is a podium - which would require a significant performance step from the small Swiss-based team, and he knows it. “Of course to target a podium with Alfa Romeo is a big target, but we will try to achieve this big target,” Giovinazzi said.
The team almost scored one in Brazil last year, when Raikkonen finished fourth and Giovinazzi was just behind in fifth. But, apart from that result, the small team only had one other race where both cars finished in the points.
Giovinazzi said improving this consistency will be important for Alfa Romeo continuing to fight in the midfield moving forward.
“I think that consistency will make the difference.”