Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, Shanghai International Circuit, 2019

Giovinazzi’s problems “completely down to the team” – Vasseur

2019 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by

Antonio Giovinazzi needs to be given time to demonstrate his potential in Formula 1, says Alfa Romeo team principal Frederic Vasseur.

The 25-year-old, who is in his first full season of F1, is yet to take his first points. But Vasseur said technical problems on Giovinazzi’s car have been partly to blame.

“Antonio so far couldn’t show his real potential, but that’s completely down to the team,” said Vasseur. “Some technical issues and therefore missed track time meant that he could never get comfortable and get the best out of the car.

“But especially in Australia in Q1 he showed how fast he is. Everyone just needs to be a bit patient and I’m sure he’ll come around.”

Giovinazzi was unable to set a time in qualifying for the last race due to a power unit problem arising from the team’s decision not to fit Ferrari’s new-specification Control Electronics following the fault Charles Leclerc experienced in Bahrain.

All 12 of Alfa Romeo’s points have been scored by Giovinazzi’s team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

“Kimi is doing a great job,” said Vassuer, “his feedback to engineers is as precise as it can be and as soon as he sits in the car he gets the job done.”

“We’ve scored points, which is great, the car showed great potential,” he added. “But at the same time we faced some technical issues and tricky situations.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2019 F1 season

Browse all 2019 F1 season articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

13 comments on “Giovinazzi’s problems “completely down to the team” – Vasseur”

  1. Vasseur is the anti helmut

  2. Any young gun should hope to better Kimi. But I have a sense Kimi is his Lotus self again, relaxed from the clutches of Ferrari pressure cooker.

    Giovinazzi might have a mountain to climb.

  3. That’s good driver management, but I’m unsure if it’s true…

  4. MB (@muralibhats)
    23rd April 2019, 22:11

    would had been much more easier if the other driver was replaced in a ferrari. Kimi is good at car setup which aided Vettel. He could get in constant points and they could continue the numero uno tactic with Charles. Charles has his own good way of doing things. Now i feel increasingly certain of the one trick pony reference of Vettel.

    1. I’m not so sure Kimi is “good at car setup”. I don’t suspect he puts much work, if any, into stuff outside of the actual racing.

      1. Antonio Saunders
        24th April 2019, 10:14

        Didn’t Kimi fit his own seat?

      2. Antonio (@frosty-jacks-racing-team)
        24th April 2019, 10:15

        Didnt he fit his own seat this year?

  5. Not gonna lie I’m a bit confused with all the criticism towards Giovinazzi.

    Qualified in P17 in Aus, then used by Ruth to slow Kimi’s opponents during the race.
    Slower by less than a tenth from Kimi during Q1 in Bahrain, ended up in P16 compared to Kimi’s eventual P9. Still manage to finish P11 on Sunday, few seconds behind Checo.
    Got screwed by faulty CE, finished only ahead of the Williamses

    The year is still long, he will have many opportunities to fight. So far he doesn’t seem like a star driver, but like he said in the interviews, together with Kimi, he can build up experience needed to get those points.

    1. @okeptl

      Not gonna lie I’m a bit confused with all the criticism towards Giovinazzi.

      I’m not. He’s paired with Räikkönen, whose fanbase is notoriously toxic towards his team mates. Has to do with the cognitive dissonance that arises from the difference between Räikkönen’s reputation (amongst his fans) and his actual performances. It’s going to get a lot nastier once Giovinazzi starts showing his real potential, instead of the occasional flashes of speed we’ve seen so far.

  6. My experience with him so far is 2 crashes before this season and very slow quali and race pace. Last race is the team faulty keeping him too long out. But i don’t see any wauw oh reaction of him.

    This was Ferrari reserve and test driver if he was any good he would nr. 2 of Vettel not Charles.

  7. If I recall the new Ferrari driver has a bit of a poor start last year and quickly improved under Fred’s guidance. Nice to see hike being given a chance rather than being written off.

  8. If I recall the new Ferrari driver had a bit of a poor start last year and quickly improved under Fred’s guidance. Nice to see hike being given a chance rather than being written off.

  9. I dare to predict that with some top-notch [if slightly passive] tuition from Kimi, Giov will blossom, like Grosjean before him, into a first rate driver, even if he never makes the F1 champion level. By next year he could be knocking on the doors of McLaren, Renault, and who knows, maybe even get mentioned [though not selected] at Ferrari. Not unlike Hulk, Perez, Grosjean, Bottas.

Comments are closed.