Giovinazzi targeting podium with Alfa Romeo
'Of course to target a podium with Alfa Romeo is a big target, but we will try to achieve this big target'.
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Antonio Giovinazzi is aiming for a podium when Formula 1 gets back underway in July - an achievement which he says will require much more consistent results from Alfa Romeo.
Giovinazzi and 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen delivered 57 points for Alfa Romeo during the 2019 season, but that was only good enough for them to finish eighth in the championship, ahead of just Haas and Williams.
“And of course to target a podium with Alfa Romeo is a big target, but we will try to achieve this big target,” Giovinazzi said recently while answering questions from Formula 1 Insights.
Alfa Romeo, which upped its involvement in the struggling Sauber team at the beginning of 2019, almost scored a podium in Brazil last year, when Raikkonen finished fourth and Giovinazzi was just behind in fifth.
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But, apart from that result, the small team only had one other race where both cars finished in the points.
Funnily enough, Kimi Raikkonen’s strongest results came at the beginning of the year (he scored points in the first four rounds) while Giovinazzi admitted he struggled a lot at the start of 2019.
He entered the 2019 season after spending two full years on testing duties for either Haas, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo. “I think the second part of the season I was much better,” he said.
“I just can’t wait to still… improving and improving and be more consistent and faster,” Giovinazzi said of the 2020 season.
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Improving the team’s consistency was a point he touched on a lot.
“To be consistent is really important for the midfield because, you know, we are really close together and I think that consistency will make the difference.”
But, he wasn’t entirely sure where teams would match up when the season gets underway in Austria on July 3.
“Testing, we don’t know how much other teams [are] pushing,” he said, “and so we need to focus for now on our project, on our job and try to improve the car.”
“We’ll see in the first race where we are.”
A longer feature about Antonio Giovinazzi and Alfa Romeo will be released in the coming weeks along with a podcast. Why not subscribe so you’ll be the first to hear about it?