Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team driver Antonio Giovinazzi is set to race in his first-full season in the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship.
The Italian driver took over Pascal Wehrlein‘s car in Free Practice 3 the Saturday morning practice before qualifying for the 2017 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix – Albert Park and contested the next race in China as well.
Giovinazzi has spent the time since then in a test and reserve driver role for Sauber and Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow.
“Unfortunately it’s already a long time ago. It’s the beginning of 2017!” said Giovinazzi of his previous F1 experience to Motorsport.com.
“It was not a full weekend [in Australia], it was only on Saturday. In China I missed FP1 and FP2 because of the weather so I started again from Free Practice 3.
“It was difficult to approach, but fortunately next year will be a lot more easy. I will have the winter tests in Barcelona and I will be a lot more ready when I arrive in Melbourne.”
Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd.
Giovinazzi has contested one race since crashing out of the 2017 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix – Shanghai International Circuit, the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans with the AF Corse Ferrari GTE Team.
The 2016 GP2 Series runner-up said he has missed the pressure of racing full time.
“I can’t wait to be honest, I miss the pressure of the race weekend and also the race on Sunday.
“It will be quite tough for the first races. I have a world champion [Kimi Raikkonen] beside me, who has a lot of years in F1.
“I need to do my job, try to improve race-by-race, and we’ll see at the end of the year if we did a good job or not.”
