Breaking news

Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP

Giovinazzi set for grid penalty in Azerbaijan

Antonio Giovinazzi is set for a 10-place grid penalty in the Azerbaijan GP after both the Italian and his Alfa Romeo teammate Kimi Raikkonen take Ferrari's new spec control electronics for this weekend.

Adam Cooper

Edited: Apr 25, 2019, 11:13 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo Racing C38

The upgraded version was fast-tracked through the system after Charles Leclerc suffered a failure in the Bahrain GP, and was used by the works Ferrari and Haas drivers in Shanghai.

However, Alfa opted not to take it because its release by Ferrari came relatively late, and some bespoke installation work would have had to be done in the field at the last minute.

When Giovinazzi subsequently suffered a failure in qualifying in Shanghai, team boss Fred Vasseur took full responsibility for not authorising the change, and vowed to use the new units in Azerbaijan.

After China, the team did some work back at its Hinwil base on the new installation – which involves revised cabling and water lines and so on – prior to fitting the new CE units in the Baku pit garage this week.

In the interim, Giovinazzi had to take a fresh example of the old spec for the race in China, which means that the new spec he will run this weekend will be his third CE of the year – triggering a 10-place penalty, as drivers are only allowed two for the season.

Raikkonen managed to get to the end of the Chinese GP having used only his original CE in all three races. However, he is now on the bubble for penalties if he needs another during the year, as are the Ferrari and Haas drivers.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Kubica: Lowe not solely responsible for Williams crisis

Next article Azerbaijan Grand Prix: The anomaly event F1 needs?

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Who slept best last night: Toto Wolff

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

5 min

Who slept best last night: Toto Wolff

Winners and losers from MotoGP’s contentious Qatar Grand Prix

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

28 min

Winners and losers from MotoGP’s contentious Qatar Grand Prix

Five things we learned at MotoGP's controversial Qatar Grand Prix

MotoGP

Qatar GP

Five things we learned at MotoGP's controversial Qatar Grand Prix

Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

1 h

Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso

Feature

Discover prime content

How Formula 1 proved the naysayers wrong – for once

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Stuart Codling

How Formula 1 proved the naysayers wrong – for once

How Lando Norris prevailed in a swift errors tour of Interlagos

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Stuart Codling

How Lando Norris prevailed in a swift errors tour of Interlagos

"He really wanted it" – why Russell was furious over aborted Brazil ‘pole’ lap

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Stuart Codling

"He really wanted it" – why Russell was furious over aborted Brazil ‘pole’ lap

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 Brazilian GP

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 Brazilian GP

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts