“I’m still a Ferrari driver”: Antonio Giovinazzi hopeful that his links with the Italian team will sort his future in F1

Antonio Giovinazzi has been dropped from Alfa Romeo to be replaced by Chinese F2 driver Guanyu Zhou. However, the Italian’s links to Ferrari have not crushed his F1 hopes entirely just yet.

Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi hopes to continue discussing his future in F1 with Ferrari despite losing his seat for 2022.

The Italian driver is set to be replaced by Chinese F2 driver Guanyu Zhou who is part of the Alpine junior academy. With every other team’s seats getting filled for the next season, Giovinazzi’s hopes for a 2022 drive have come to a grinding halt.

Though Giovinazzi landed a drive in Formula E for the Dragon Penske Autosport team, he remains a part of the Ferrari Driver Academy. This tie with the Italian team makes Antonio hopeful of having discussions with the Scuderia regarding his future.

“I’m still a Ferrari driver now, and now we are discussing also about next year. For sure, it’s one of my targets to stay here and see what will happen for 2023. [It’s] still under discussion, but we will try our best.”

Also read: Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto expresses his opinion on Antonio Giovinazzi being shown the exit door at Alfa Romeo

Kimi Raikkönen all praises for Antonio Giovinazzi

The Finn driver who announced his retirement from F1 earlier this year has been driving alongside Giovinazzi for the last three years at Alfa Romeo.

Raikkönen thinks it is a ‘shame’ that the young Italian driver is without a seat in 2022. He, however, hopes that there are future prospects for Giovinazzi in the sport.

 

Raikkonen gets the worst of it in the teammate battle with Giovinazzi #F1 #BrazilGP pic.twitter.com/C9lRMCrIPK

— Spare Parts: A Racing Podcast (@sparepartspod) November 13, 2021

“Obviously, it’s a shame for him,” Raikkonen explained. “He’s a lovely guy. We’ve known each other for quite a while, since the Ferrari days.

“But that’s how it sometimes goes. Hopefully, he’ll find something good to do, and hopefully one day he has another chance to be in F1.”

The 2007 world champion believes that Giovinazzi deserves to stay in F1, but unfortunately, there aren’t enough cars on the grid for him and quite a few others.

With the final three races left, Giovinazzi has just one point to his name while Raikkönen has 10. Their closest rival is the Williams team, but it seems unlikely that Alfa Romeo will come out on top of the British team this season.

Also read:  George Russell fully focussed on his remaining time with Williams rather than thinking about next year’s Mercedes drive