Breaking news

Formula 1 Azerbaijan GP

Raikkonen: "Very unfair" to judge Giovinazzi on start of 2019

Kimi Raikkonen says it would be "very unfair” to pass judgment on his Alfa Romeo Formula 1 teammate Antonio Giovinazzi on the basis of the first three races of 2019.

Valentin Khorounzhiy

Published: Apr 26, 2019, 8:26 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo Racing

Giovinazzi, who is contesting his first full-time season in F1, is yet to outqualify grand prix racing veteran Raikkonen and has no points to his name – whereas the Finn has been in the top 10 in all three races so far.

But Giovinazzi is yet to enjoy a clean race weekend as an Alfa Romeo driver, as he had his Australian Grand Prix compromised by floor and front wing damage from debris, sat out much of the crucial FP2 session in Bahrain due to cooling issues and was unable to qualify in Shanghai due to a control electronics problem.

Asked by Motorsport.com what he had made of his new teammate amid Giovinazzi's run of misfortune, Raikkonen said: “I think it's obviously not been all up to him, he's unfortunately had a lot of issues on the car.

“And obviously [he has] quite little experience, any mileage you can put it's obviously going to help him a huge amount more than on my side, so it's been very unfortunate, but that's racing, and obviously we always try to fix things.

“He's had more issues on the practice with the reliability, small issues that are not a big issue but stop the car and then we don't get running, so it doesn't help him.

“Hopefully he gets a clean weekend and then we can judge him much easier, I think it's very unfair right now to write him off.

“I think he can do fast laps but obviously he has not that much experience, and when you miss one full session in any weekend it's going to be a nightmare to try to build back on it.”

Giovinazzi was a standout fourth in the first qualifying segment in Melbourne, and trailed Raikkonen by less than a tenth in Q1 in Bahrain, where he was eliminated while the Finn advanced to Q2.

In China, team boss Frederic Vasseur admitted that Giovinazzi has not yet been given the chance to display his full potential.

“We need to be able to give him a clear weekend, and so far he didn't do the FP1, he didn't do the quali,” Vasseur told Motorsport.com. “You can't work like this. You need mileage, you need to get confidence for sure, but we are not helping him at all.”

When asked about Vasseur's comments, Giovinazzi said in Baku: “I think we are only in the beginning of the race, we are a team, like the team is believing in me I believe in the team, and we need to just keep working and I'm sure the result will come.”

Giovinazzi will serve a 10-place grid penalty for the Azerbaijan GP after Alfa Romeo had to fit a replacement control electronics on his car in China before switching it for a new-specification component for the Baku race.

Additional reporting by Adam Cooper

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 Perez my inspiration in Baku podium hunt, says Ricciardo

Next article Haas believes thinner tread tyres are hurting race form

Top Comments

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

View More & Comment

Latest news

Gabriel Bortoleto on Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar's F1 success: 'Let's see where we are in 20 years'

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

20 min

Gabriel Bortoleto on Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar's F1 success: 'Let's see where we are in 20 years'

Nicki Thiim's cheeky F1 jab: "Max Verstappen just wants to drive a proper race car!"

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 24 min

Nicki Thiim's cheeky F1 jab: "Max Verstappen just wants to drive a proper race car!"

MotoGP riders say 850cc bikes will be less physical and more fun to ride

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Indonesian GP

54 min

MotoGP riders say 850cc bikes will be less physical and more fun to ride

How the M8B became the most dominant car in McLaren’s history

General

How the M8B became the most dominant car in McLaren’s history

Feature

Discover prime content

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Laurent Mekies under the microscope: How different is his leadership at Red Bull from Christian Horner?

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Laurent Mekies under the microscope: How different is his leadership at Red Bull from Christian Horner?

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