“I want to race in F1”: Antonio Giovinazzi
By: Fanni Váradi
Photos: GP2 Series / antoniogiovinazzi.com
Photos: GP2 Series / antoniogiovinazzi.com
Born on January 14, 1993 in Martina Franca, Italy, the Italian driver Antonio Giovinazzi is one of the great young promises of motorsport in his country. He began his career in karting in 2001, competing in various championships. In 2012 he made his single seater debut in Formula Pilota China Series F. Abarth, then he moved to the British Formula 3 Championship and the European Formula 3, where he raced for Jagonya Ayam With Carlin from 2013 to 2015, achieving 10 wins in that span and he finished second in the championship last year. Currently he’s competing in GP2 with Prema Racing, with whom he has two victories.
He’s been adapting quickly to the car, which unlike F3, is more powerful, it has more horsepower and has carbon brakes. “I think it is a big jump from F.3, but with a big team like Prema we are working really well, that makes things easier for me. So far we did a good job and we need to keep on working like we did in Baku, and the results will come.”
The start of the season was not entirely easy, Barcelona was a weekend to forget after having problems in qualifying and he was penalized for the second race after colliding with Marciello in the first race. Then in Monaco he ended the first race very close to the top 10 and in the second abandoned due to a brake failure. But things got better in Baku. “For now I am satisfied. We will see where we are after spend the next few races,” he told us.
He told us how his weekend went in Baku. “Is a good result for Prema. We have been strong from free practice, we came here as rooky like everybody, we worked hard in the factory before the race weekend,” he told us. “We arrived in Baku quite confident and we saw from the practice that we were really strong so we signed the first pole, than the result of both racing was amazing for us.”
One of his great achievements in the short time he has in the series has been repeating the feat achieved by Valsecchi, something Giovinazzi was surprised to achieve and did not expect. It was not a simple, he had problems in the first lap of the second race, but managed to solve them and keep up with the good race pace. After Race 1 my expectation was lower, we managed to win Race 1 but after the problem I had in the first lap of Race 2, my target was to gain points”, he told us. and he got them, just with a little help from the safety car. “Win twice was a big surprise for me and I’m really happy.”
He is now in second in the championship, but for now he does not think about becoming a champion. “I really need to stay focused, do my job at my best, and, after that, we will see where we will be in one month time.” For now, he will focus on being better than his teammate Pierry Gasly, whom he considers as his greatest rival, “we are working really well together,” he said about the French. Other drivers who he considers as rivals are Nato and Lynn.
Like many other drivers, his dream is to become a professional driver and to race in Formula One, “F1 is my main target.”
