Frédéric Vasseur insists Antonio Giovinazzi’s position within the Alfa Romeo Racing team is not under any kind of threat despite the Italian having scored only one point in the opening ten races of the 2019 Formula 1 season.
Giovinazzi’s only top ten result came in the Austrian Grand Prix when he finished tenth, but the Italian has shown flashes of what he can do this season, and often has been riddled with bad luck and reliability issues.
One such example was him qualifying inside the top ten for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix only to be relegated to the back of the grid due to a penalty for engine component changes.
His most recent outing at Silverstone ended in the gravel trap thanks to a mechanical issue at the back of his car, but despite the lack of points compared to team-mate Kimi Räikkönen, his team principal Vasseur is happy with the progress being made by the Italian, particularly during Qualifying on Saturdays.
Giovinazzi out-qualified Räikkönen at Silverstone as they lined up eleventh and twelfth on the grid, which means he has beaten his team-mate in three of the past four races, with only the race in Austria seeing the Finn ahead on Saturday, and then it was only by 0.013 seconds.
“I think he’s doing a strong job in quali,” said Vasseur to Motorsport.com. “He’s matching Kimi on Saturdays now, we just have to calm down the situation.
“I’m not too worried, because he’s doing the job. He scored a point in Austria, he was in a good dynamic at Silverstone, he was again in front of Kimi.
“Honestly he’s not under pressure, from the team or anyone else. I will be patient.”
