Current Antonio Giovinazzi

Thought I'd write an unexpected thread for an unexpected debutante. Giovinazzi's performance in his late call up seems to have impressed everyone and so he is a very worth add to the CTA Formula One Drivers section.

Born in Martina Franca, Italy he is the grand old age of 23. To make some of us feel old Alain Prost had already won 4 titles and retired (twice) before he was born. Started the usual way with success in Karting and winning some trophies there (Italian and Euro), moved on to British F3 (runner up in 2013), European F3 (runner up in 2015) and GP2 (runner up in 2016). Along the way he's also had a couple of races in DTM and a go at Le Mans last year. He's certainly held his own in every series he has entered.

Personally I first came across him racing in European F3 in the 2014 season. If you remember that years field was particularly strong and featured the likes of Esteban Ocon, Max Verstappen, Felix Rosenqvist, Tom Blomqvist and Antonio Fuoco. Once again Giovinazzi held his own that year with a couple of wins and placing 6th in the championship. The following year he did better but still only finished as runner up for the title behind Rosenqvist. Overall I viewed him as a fun driver to watch. nice bloke but not a world beater. That all started to change when he got into GP2.

His promotion to GP2 was a bit of a surprise to me and I saw it as a step up. I expected him to struggle. Guess what? I was massively wrong once more. In only the second meeting he took pole position, victory in the feature race and victory in the sprint race. This had not been done since 2012 and had only been done by 3 people ever. It had certainly never been done by a rookie who had barely raced on pirelli rubber before. Even if it was a flash in the pan it was impressive but he continued the good form. He did eventually lose out in the title race to his much more experience and heavily backed team mate Gasly, but not without putting him under a hell of a lot of pressure. Giovinazzi really showed he was a smart driver and I think a lot of people got quite excited about him last year. It was certainly enough to finally show up on Ferrari's radar and be signed to the team in September 2016.

Thats the quite interesting thing about Giovinazzi - he's not been brought through the ranks by an F1 junior program. Ferrari pretty much sign every young Italian driver going but somehow hadn't touched Giovinazzi. It was only after he'd done all the hard work that they came calling. He started with some simulator stuff and was made official 3rd driver for 2017 which is how he ended up in line for the Sauber drive. Antonio must love the race of champions, Wherlein's niggling injury kept him out (David Croft suggested it might be something political by the way but not heard anything about that) and he was given the nod on Saturday morning that he would be making his F1 debut. It was certainly brown trouser time but he seemed to take it in his stride. He'd done one test session pre-season and seemed to know the car well. He nearly pipped his team mate in quali and then had a pretty impressive race. Not to shabby seeing as he was in a Sauber which is supposed to be a dog!

Will that be it for his 2017 racing? probably. He has certainly put himself top of the stand in list for any team though and put himself in the shop window for a drive next year already. You have to wonder if Ferrari might stump up some cash to get him a race seat as a potential replacement for Kimi when he finally goes. He can now walk around with his chest puffed out and a swagger saying he is officially an F1 driver though. Well played chap.
 
Last edited:
Giovonazzi is on standby to replace Wherlein at Sauber for if Pascal doesn't get medical clearance to race.

He'll also be doing some FP1 session for Haas in upcoming grand Prix which might make KMag look over his shoulder somewhat.
 
Why? Would be the ultimate punishment if Ferrari decide to appeal a race ban.

Also Italian driver comes in for first drive in a Ferrari at Monza? The media would lap that crap up. I reckon David Croft would explode with excitement.
 
It would be the ultimate punishment. I do not believe for a second that the FIA will ever hand down a punishment that takes the Ferrari number 1 out of Monza.

Remember when Renault had a race ban at Valencia quashed? Or Schumacher's ban missing Hockenheim?

If the FIA wanted to make Croft explode, they'd disqualify all but Verstappen.
 
Last edited:
Yeah but we are in the Liberty Media era right now. They have to make all that money back that Bernie paid out to the shareholders in advance. Italian at Monza. Sell sell sell.
 
A little bit of a forgotten man since Leclerc showed up and wowed us all but Giovanazzi is topping testing in the Ferrari by 2 seconds today.

Live Blog (Sky Sports)

Would like to see him get a full shot next year as he pushed Gasly quite close in GP2 and Gasly is doing ok.
 
A little bit of a forgotten man since Leclerc showed up and wowed us all but Giovanazzi is topping testing in the Ferrari by 2 seconds today.

Live Blog (Sky Sports)

Would like to see him get a full shot next year as he pushed Gasly quite close in GP2 and Gasly is doing ok.
Ferrari weren't running the simplified 2019 front wing. The 2 second gap isn't as impressive once that is taken into account.
 
I'd thought I'd bring this driver up to speed

It seems like he is the forgotten man at the moment and struggling at Alfa

I don't know if its because he is treated as No 2 or he simply cannot get to grips with the car but not being on the pace to Kimi as well as seeing his stablemate LeClerc doing the biz at the sharp end is not going to help his position if Ferrari are already lining up
Illott or Schumacher
 
0.06 behind his team mate in Q1 which was the difference between being knocked out and going through to Q2. I think it's harsh to say he's struggling when you look at it from that angle.
 
RasputinLives 5 Ferrari powered cars in the top 10 and the missing one is Giovinazzi before Grosjean got penalised. Maybe I was a bit harsh but the fact Ferrari have already lined up Illott and Schumacher means he can;t relax for his seat

If anything the expectation would be he would send Kimi to retirement.
 
So no Giovinazzi has inexplicably binned his Sauber Alfa Romeo at Spa with no external influence... this time putting Russell’s life at risk.

He’s out of his depth, and should consider whether F1 is the right place for him 🏎
 
Giovinazzi - is a mystery - highly rated by Ferrari and was a GP2 runner up but seems to have these moments of erraticness

Maybe he is feeling the pressure for his seat from the juniors competing in F2 but he was starting to put Kimi into the shade until the last few races where Kimi seems to have woken up
 
Back
Top Bottom