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Giovinazzi ‘trusts’ Ferrari to secure his F1 future

Antonio Giovinazzi says he has faith in Ferrari to secure his future in Formula 1 while he hopes to maximise his Haas practice outings to gather favour for a race seat in 2018.

The Italian driver has secured a deal to run seven FP1 outings for Haas between the British Grand Prix until the end of the season. The 23-year-old made his F1 debut during pre-season testing for Sauber and raced in the Australian Grand Prix and Chinese Grand Prix as stand-in for the injured Pascal Wehrlein.

Giovinazzi's early F1 opportunity ended under a cloud when he crashed out of the Chinese Grand Prix after spinning in the wet on the home straight right under the noses of F1 team bosses.

The 2016 GP2 Series runner-up is hoping to make amends and impress for Haas in his run of free practice sessions to prove his talents ahead of a potential race seat for 2018.

"It's a good programme, seven FP1s in 10 races, and I know all the tracks apart from Brazil and Mexico so it will be good also to learn these two tracks where I didn't race," Giovinazzi said. "It's a good programme, a lot of time in the car so this is important. Of course to drive a new car from now to the end of the season is really important for me.

"The target is to be there [in F1] next year, but now I focus more on what I do now with these seven FP1s, and we'll see what we can do for next year."

Giovinazzi accepts with only 20 race seats in F1 for 2018 it will be tough for him to become the first full-time Italian driver since Jarno Trulli six years ago, but feels as a Ferrari junior driver he's in a promising position to make a breakthrough.

"To get into F1 is really hard. There are not much seats," he said. "It's not like football. But it's just my first season in Ferrari and they are really good. I trust them, so they know what they can do for me.

"Now it's just time to focus on what they give me this year with seven FP1s, and then we'll see what happens next year. Anything can happen, so I hope I can find a seat for next year."

Giancarlo Fisichella was the last Italian to drive for Ferrari when he and fellow countryman Luca Badoer acted as replacement drivers for the injured Felipe Massa in 2009.

In February, Giovinazzi tested Ferrari's SF15-T at its private track Fiorano which he described as 'a wonderful feeling'.

Immediately after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Giovinazzi returned to action for Haas as its test driver for the 2018 Pirelli tyre tests. 

Zdroj: crash.net