Antonio Giovinazzi says the Alfa Romeo Racing team need to find solutions to their race day problems as the Italian feels the pace loss they are experiencing on Sunday’s is hurting them at this point of the season.
Giovinazzi had started the Canadian Grand Prix twelfth on the grid with ambitions of moving forward and fighting for his first points in Formula 1, but his race unravelled early with first corner contact with Alexander Albon, while a spin later in the race at turn two relegated him to a thirteenth place finish.
Aside from the two Williams Racing drivers, Giovinazzi remains the only driver yet to score a point in 2019 but he felt the race pace at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was just not what it should have been, meaning he was always fighting a losing battle to break into that coveted top ten for the first time.
“Finishing in P13 is quite a disappointment, especially since we thought we had the speed to make up some places in the race,” said Giovinazzi. “The pace wasn’t really there, easy as that.
“We need to find a solution because we appear to lose our competitiveness on Sunday and that is really hurting us.”
Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur was equally disappointed with the outcome at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, with Giovinazzi only thirteenth, two places ahead of an equally frustrated Kimi Räikkönen, but he foresees a turnaround in the next few races as Alfa Romeo introduce a number of new developments on their C38-Ferrari’s.
“After being very close to getting into Q3 yesterday, we were convinced we could have a good race performance,” admitted Vasseur. “However, an unscheduled stop for Kimi due to a visor strip – not his own, this time – in his brake duct and Antonio suffering contact in lap one prevented us from competing against the rest of the midfield.
“We are working hard to understand the performance of the tyres and we’ll make the most of the developments we have lined up for the next few races. I am confident we can recover the speed we showed earlier in the season and get back in the fight for points.”
