Antonio Giovinazzi admitted to playing it safe during the early wet running on day four of the first pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
It was the Italian’s first outing in the wet in a Formula 1 car where he was replacing the injured Pascal Wehrlein, who continues to recover from a back injury suffered at the Race of Champions in Miami at the beginning of January, and he did not want to make a mistake that would affect his chances of getting further outings with the Sauber F1 Team later in the year.
Giovinazzi so far only has a Scuderia Ferrari reserve driver role in place for 2017 but with chances of testing there, he is hoping something can be done to provide him with free practice outings with Sauber during the season, and not making mistakes during testing was key.
“A crash can happen, especially with this car, with a lot of grip and a lot different,” said Giovinazzi on f1i.com. “But yes, I took it easy. Especially [in the] morning when it was a wetter condition.
“Everything is new for me so also to find the limit you need to lock sometimes and this I think is what happened. A driver is always in the limit, I need to see what is the limit so I was quite confident.”
Giovinazzi felt positive about his two days in the C36, and felt it was important to get experience in all kinds of conditions in order to prepare him for any future outings in Formula 1.
“I’m really happy with the programme we did, with the team and everything, a really good sensation,” said Giovinazzi. “I think it was really important for me to get confidence with the car in different conditions.
“I did quite a lot of laps in the wet, intermediate, slick again. Then in the afternoon we repeat again the programme.”
