Antonio Giovinazzi endured a tough Chinese Grand Prix weekend, with the Italian unable to better fifteenth at the chequered flag, ahead only of the two Williams Racing drivers.
The Alfa Romeo Racing driver was forced to miss Qualifying on Saturday due to a technical issue on board his C38-Ferrari, with the team revealing that it was the same kind of issue that had hobbled Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc’s charge during the Bahrain Grand Prix just two weeks previously.
Missing Qualifying meant that Giovinazzi started nineteenth on the grid and he took a strategy gamble to see about gaining positions, switching from the soft Pirelli compound to the medium after only seven laps before making a second pit stop for a fresh set of medium tyres on lap thirty.
Unfortunately, the strategy did not work well enough for him to score his first points of his Formula 1 career, but with Formula 1 now heading to Azerbaijan, the venue where he took an amazing double victory during his GP2 Series campaign of 2016, Giovinazzi is confident good results are coming.
“It was a difficult weekend overall,” said Giovinazzi. “We started the race from the back of the grid and went with a bit of a different strategy to try and gain some positions.
“It didn’t work so well in the end and now I just look forward to starting fresh at the next GP in Azerbaijan. I have some good memories from Baku and it will be fun to race there again.
“We will see what we can achieve.”
