Ferrari reject-turned-hero Antonio Giovinazzi has recently made a bold claim about F1 after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans race earlier this year. However, 2009 F1 champion Jenson Button does not agree with the Italian’s claims. The Briton has now responded to the 29-year-old by asking him one simple question.
As for Giovinazzi, his F1 career was short-lived. He competed with Alfa Romeo for three seasons from 2019-21 and scored just a total of 21 points. After the end of the 2021 season, Alfa Romeo decided to replace him with Guanyu Zhou. The Italian was furious with the decision as he took to social media and vent out his frustrations.
1/2 Quando da bambino mi chiedevano cosa volessi fare da grande la mia risposta era: il pilota di @F1 .
Oggi quello che sognavo da bambino si realizza e dal prossimo anno avró l’onore di essere pilota del team @alfa_romeo @SauberF1Team . pic.twitter.com/zVF201K7qn— Antonio Giovinazzi (@Anto_Giovinazzi) September 25, 2018
As quoted by insider.com, Giovinazzi wrote, “F1 is emotion, talent, cars, risk, speed. But when money rules, it can be ruthless. I believe in the surprise of an unexpected result, of big or small victories achieved thanks to one’s commitment“. Now after winning at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Giovinazzi has made another audacious claim.
Antonio Giovinazzi believes Le Mans is bigger than F1
In a recent interview with Endurance-Info (as quoted by Formula Racers), Antonio Giovinazzi made a bold claim by stating, “Winning in Le Mans is bigger than driving in F1“. On reading the Italian’s claims, former F1 champion Jenson Button was not too happy.
The Briton, who also has competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans but never won, replied to Giovinazzi by stating, “Bigger than driving in F1, yes, but bigger than winning in F1?” Button has presumably hit back at Giovinazzi in such a fashion as the 29-year-old has never won an F1 race despite competing in the sport for three full seasons and having had 62 starts.
Bigger than driving in F1 yes but bigger than winning in F1?
— Jenson Button (@JensonButton) September 29, 2023
Despite the Italian’s lack of success in F1, he surprised everyone when he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans – Hypercar in his first attempt with Ferrari. While the Prancing Horse had an extremely successful season in their Hypercar segment, they have not managed to replicate such a high level of performance in F1.
Ferrari have struggled to deliver in F1
Even though Ferrari have witnessed a significant improvement in performances recently, they are still far off from competing for the championship anytime soon. Red Bull have already won this year’s Constructors’ Championship and do not show any signs of slowing down anytime soon.
As for Ferrari, the best they can finish this year is second in the Constructors’ Championship. The Italian outfit have currently scored 285 points and are just 20 points behind second-placed Mercedes.
With Ferrari having shown an improvement in their performances recently, they may just be able to grab that second place from their rivals by the end of the season. Charles Leclerc has himself made it clear that he hopes his side can use the team’s win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a motivation to improve their results in F1.
