Antonio Giovinazzi admitted it was important for him to regain some confidence behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car again during his recent free practice outing with the Haas F1 Team at Silverstone after his two-race stint with the Sauber F1 Team did not end the way he had hoped.
The Italian was drafted in to replace Pascal Wehrlein for the opening two races of the season as the German recovered from injury, and the 2016 GP2 Series runner-up showed well in his debut in Australia, but his second outing in China saw him crash in both qualifying and the race in tricky conditions.
Giovinazzi had not expected to make his Grand Prix debut this season having been chosen as Scuderia Ferrari’s reserve driver, but he felt he learned what to do, and what not to do, in his two race starts, and having participated in free practice at Silverstone in the first of seven outings with the Haas team, he was happy to find confidence once more that he could perform well in a Formula 1 car.
“My rules were to be third driver for Ferrari and then in Australia I had the opportunity on Saturday to jump in the [Sauber] car straightaway,” said Giovinazzi.
“I didn’t know the track and didn’t know quite well the car. But it was really good debut I think, especially in qualy but also in the race.
“And then in China I was completely opposite. It was a really bad weekend for me. But then for a rookie and for a young driver, it’s important to learn from mistakes, so I think I learned from what I got from Australia but also what I got from China.
“What’s important is to learn, and to learn better is to come back in the car, do laps and take back the confidence because if the last time you were in the car you crashed, you are not in the car any more, it’s really hard.
“To come back and take confidence back is really important.”
