Antonio Giovinazzi only raced once this past season, his role as Ferrari reserve keeping him mainly in the garage looking on to cars raced by other drivers but now, that he steps up to do the business for the Swiss team, he cannot wait to get racing.
Backed by Ferrari, Giovinazzi made his Formula 1 debut at the 2017 Australian Grand Prix when he replaced injured Sauber driver Pascal Wehrlein. With only FP3 under his belt he went on to qualify 16th, only a tenth shy of teammate Marcus Ericsson, and then gave a good account of himself to finish 12th ahead of the Swede who DNFed.
The team retained the Italian youngster for China and that's where it all went pear-shaped, Giovinazzi crashed in front of the pits in both qualifying and the race. He was clearly not ready and his minders apparently felt so too.
Since then the Reds have backed Charles Leclerc, like Giovinazzi, also Ferrari Driver Academy graduate who emerged as the favoured 'son' and after an impressive first season with Sauber, he is stepping up to the Scuderia.
Thus with a seat free at the Alfa-Romeo backed Swiss team, Ferrari secured it for Giovinazzi.
Speaking to Formula Passion he admitted that his first taste of the top flight is all but forgotten, "It's already been a long time, it was at the beginning of last year."
"Also, they were not complete race weekends: in Australia, I only drove on Saturday and in China, there was no FP1 and FP2 because of the weather."
"These were difficult times but next year things will be better. I will have the winter tests in Barcelona to get up to speed and I will be much better prepared when I get to Melbourne this time."
Giovinazzi only raced once last year, with the AF Corse Ferrari GTE team at Le Mans - in fact, his only race outing since crashing the Sauber on lap 3 in Shanghai.
Along the way, he has racked up valuable FP1 mileage with Sauber and Haas, 13 sessions since he sat on the grid in China last April.
Needless to say, the 24-year-old is itching to get going, " I can't wait to start racing again. I miss the pressure of the race weekend and Sunday. For now, I was relaxed doing FP1, doing my job, but now I cannot wait for next year to feel real pressure."
Giovinazzi will share a garage with Kimi Raikkonen, a veteran who will provide a good measure for the rookie, "The first races will be difficult. Next to me, I have a world champion who has many years of experience in Formula 1."
"I need to do my job. Try to improve race-by-race and then we'll see at the end of the year if I have done a good job or not," added the Italian.
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