Antonio Giovinazzi: Alfa Romeo driver reveals watching F4, Formula Renault videos of his past races at Imola helped him overtake 6 drivers on the opening lap.
Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi celebrated their contract renewals with Alfa Romeo by scoring points at Imola. Giovinazzi was impressive, especially, as he overtook 6 drivers on the opening lap, closing the race P10. This was the third points finish of the season for the Italian. He explained the race for the breathtaking start – watching his old F4 and Formula Renault videos at Imola.
“An amazing first lap, I gained six positions again. Yesterday night I did again quite a lot of work watching all the starts, from Formula Renault, Formula 4, all the stuff I had here in the laptop. And I put it all together on lap one, a little bit of luck and everything, and this is it. We pushed quite a lot in the beginning of the race with the soft, and then we changed to medium, pushing until the end.”
Also read: Alfa Romeo retains both Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi; Mick Schumacher to Haas?
Alfa Romeo looking the best of the trailing pack
Alfa Romeo is leading their nearest competitor Haas by 5 points, which is massive at the bottom of the standings. Both Kimi and Antonio have scored 4 points each and with improvements in place next season, we could see the Italian team as a genuine midfield battle contender.
“I think it was all good. I think also with Kimi scoring points with two cars is something great for the team and Alfa Romeo.”
Trackside engineering chief Xevi Pujolar explained the strategies that went behind both the drivers at Imola. Starting Antonio on soft turned out to be a masterstroke, with the six drivers he overtook – Nicholas Latifi, Romain Grosjean, Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen, Raikkonen, and Sebastian Vettel – all on mediums.
“We were a bit on the aggressive side, not with Kimi, but with Antonio. But then we were trying to cover both ends, with Antonio we were covering the early pitstops, and then with Kimi the late ones, in case of different safety career scenarios.
“We were surprised when Antonio boxed quite early with the soft. Then people starting with the medium were covering us, trying to protect as well, and going with the hard.”
