Being able to do Friday practice should make Antonio Giovinazzi’s second race weekend easier than his first, he believes.
The Ferrari reserve drivers was drafted into Sauber’s race team as a replacement for Pascal Wehrlein following second practice in Melbourne two weeks ago.
“It was a quite late call on Saturday morning,” said Giovinazzzi, “but I really enjoyed everything I did from FP3 to qualifying to race.”
“It will be a different race weekend though. The weather also looks difficult. So, it will be maybe wet and also to have some experience in the wet conditions will be good. What I can do is to do my best and hope the result can be good like Melbourne.”
Giovinazzi admitted he could have pushed harder during the race as he had been used to managing Pirelli’s high-degradation tyres last year in GP2.
“My strong part, I think, in GP2 was – in the race – to save the tyres,” he explained. “In Melbourne, I didn’t have much experience so maybe I was too slow in the beginning of the race.”
“But of course here I will improve, to already have FP1 and FP2 will be good to see how is the degradation, to have a feeling with the car so I hope I can do a better job in the race.”
He said “the end of the race was not easy” from a physical point of view but said he “expected it to be more difficult”.
“Here I think it will be a little bit tough because the track has a lot longer corners so for the neck it will be not easy – but I was training last week and hope to also be OK here.”
Giovinazzi has not been told yet whether he will continue to race for Sauber in the Bahrain Grand Prix, which takes place once week after Sunday’s grand prix.
“Now we just think race-by-race. I had the call here on Tuesday and I’m here to race for Sauber but already from next week I will be back in red with the Scuderia Ferrari – but then we will see in the future.”
Gabriel (@rethla)
6th April 2017, 16:14
It will be “easier” for sure but because of that more will be expected of you so good luck.
Robbie (@robbie)
6th April 2017, 16:28
Yeah who knows how good AG is, but F1 insiders have been saying for years that often times rookies struggle in their second year because once they’ve had a season to learn what it’s all about, they then no longer have the ‘excuse’ of being a rookie, and they have much more playing on their minds for their second year, which can harm them psychologically. I just wonder if AG won’t already have more playing on his mind now that he has some time to reflect on his situation, which he didn’t have in Australia. But for sure it’s not going to hurt him to have more practice time in China, and of course I realize this is not a full season for him. Perhaps because of that he can just be completely unencumbered. Will be interesting to see.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
6th April 2017, 16:45
Only one actual rookie in f1 this season. Everyone’s excited about Sauber’s reserve driver. What a way to leave an impression.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
6th April 2017, 18:28
To me Stroll, Vandoorne and Giovinazzi are all rookies.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
6th April 2017, 19:42
Not often I feel really excited about a driver. Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel and lately Verstappen and Vandoorne all share thing that make them really special racing-wise. Of course there are other exceptional drivers but with those I have a special feeling. Giovinazzi has joined my list and given his GP2 season last year I was not surprised that he entered the Ferrari academy without any backing.
Having a complete racing weekend will let him properly adapt to the new tyres and I’m optimistic about his performance. I am glad he can have some running time and hope he will soon have a full contract as I feel he can really shine in F1.
Evil Homer (@)
7th April 2017, 1:04
Agreed! I hope he has a really good weekend and given the time to get the set up better be interesting to see how he fares against Marcus Ericsson in quali and the race! Best of luck to him.
Ashwin (@redbullf1)
6th April 2017, 22:18
I just hope Sauber can so some magic in China and give this guy’s career a boost.
RP (@slotopen)
7th April 2017, 2:29
Giovinazzi looks really skinny in that image. I notice it on other drivers sometimes. Asking these kids to be strong and tiny isn’t right.
JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
7th April 2017, 9:30
That didn’t work out so well, although he has at least been out on the circuit on Friday this time!