Antonio Giovinazzi admits difficulty in matching Alfa Romeo Racing teammate Kimi Raikkonen in 2019 F1 season but adds he learnt a lot from him.
In a bad situation, teammates can seriously hurt each other’s results, but conversely, they can drive each other to success with a healthy, competitive relationship. For obvious reasons, the latter is preferred by F1 teams for less trouble to handle.
And, luckily for Alfa Romeo, Giovinazzi is of the belief that the latter is the case when it comes to his partnership with Raikkonen. In fact, the Italian noted that he expects to be better prepared to fight other drivers having now worked with the Finn in what he described as an advantageous relationship for him.
“It was not easy to start my career in F1 with a world champion driver,” said Giovinazzi in an interview to Sky Sports. “Also after two years stopping competition, I lost a little bit wheel to wheel in a race, so it was not easy to start with Kimi beside me in the race.
“If the car was good enough for P8 then he was P8 or P7 in terms of result. I think I started to focus after a few races to think about how I could improve especially watching Kimi. In the summer I was watching to see why I was slower than Kimi in the race and I was able to improve myself in the second half of the season.
“Now I need to continue like this. I have to treat it as an advantage to have Kimi as my team mate. He is the Iceman he’s a cold guy, but away from the cameras he is a really funny guy, a good guy also to spend a dinner or a lunch with.
“Before Melbourne we went to play tennis together it was a really fun moment – I really respect him as a driver and as a person,” summed up Giovinazzi, who also discussed the possibility of F1 races without spectators in 2020 due to COVID-19.
The idea has been thrown around a lot recently, as F1 looks at its limited options for running races, and attempts to try and salvage what it can of the thus-far ill-fated 2020 season. “For sure it will be really different – people coming to support us is an extra boost for every driver,” said Giovinazzi.
“But now, the main thing is to race in a safe mode and one way is to have no people at the track. Of course they will support us on the sofa, but I think if we are to start soon, to start without people is a safe way to race.”
Giovinazzi added that it will slightly tough for F1 racers to be 100 percent with their fitness when the 2020 season starts but he feels it will be same for all. He is taking part in Virtual GP as well as the charity Race for the World events alongside other rivals.
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The story was edited by Darshan Chokhani