Introduction
It is not a given fact that you will only make it to the top in the world of motorsport if you start at a very young age. Nicholas Latifi has shown that, as can be seen in our latest Meet the Grid article. This time we will look at another late bloomer, the iconic number 99!
From Hobby to a Career...
In the city of Martina Franca, southern Italy, Antonio Maria Giovinazzi was born on 14th December 1993. The Italian started karting at the age of seven, but for several years only practiced the sport as a hobby. From 13, he made the decision to take his hobby to the next level, and started participating in races and championships. He was crowned champion of the 60cc Italian National Karting category in 2006, as well as winning the Euro 60cc Championship the same year.
Despite early success, he didn’t score well in the following years and had a portfolio gap of nearly 4 years, until 2010 when he raced in the WSK Master Series in the KF2 class and was a back to back champion.
In 2012, Giovinazzi made the switch to single seaters at the age of 18, where he started racing in Formula Pilota China and won the title his rookie-year. He also drove one weekend in Formula Abarth, as a guest driver for the BVM Team, winning two races and finishing second place in the third. However, as he was a guest driver, received no points.
Due to starting quite late with his professional career, Giovinazzi has always been commonly slightly older than his competitors. That did not stop the Italian, however, when in 2013 he crossed over to European Formula 3, but again struggled to make a name for himself. That same year he also raced in British Formula 3, having more success, eventually finishing second.
2014 saw Antonio compete with Carlin Motorsport in Formula 3, taking his first second-place podium in Hockenheim. His first win was earned in Austria, at the Red Bull Ring, shortly preceded by another at the Nürburgring, leaving him to finish the 2014 season in sixth place.
In 2015, Giovinazzi continued to drive for Carlin Motorsports Team, competing with future Formula One rivals - Alexander Albon, Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Lance Stroll to name a few. Giovinazzi was a championship contender for much of the season, winning six times, but only translated to the runner-up spot. 2015 would also be his last chance, with F3 introducing a three-season limit for drivers at the end of that year.
The Italian driver competed in endurance racing in 2016, racing the Asian Le Mans Series with Sean Galael in the LMP2 class. The duo contested in the final two rounds at Buriram and Sepang where they won both races.
Antonio then competed at the Silverstone round of the European Le Mans for SMP Racing to finish 5th with his partners, Sean Galael and Mitch Evans.
He also participated in the 2016 6 Hours of Fuji for the Extreme Sports Team with Galael and Giedo van der Garde, the team finishing fourth. Taking part in the subsequent round in Shanghai, Giovinazzi along with Galael and Tom Blomqvist finished second. Driving in the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans for the Ferrari factory team, Giovinazzi finished 5th.
Getting Onto the F1 Radar...
2016 was an important year for Giovinazzi as it would be the one decisive for his future in motorsport as he entered Formula 2. He joined the Prema Powerteam, with Pierre Gasly as a teammate.
Starting on the back foot, he lost reverse grid pole in the first two rounds and finished outside the points, recovering however, to win both the feature and the sprint races at Baku, the first driver to do so since 2012. His season from here continued much along the pattern of mixed results, but proved he had the graft and talent to battle with Gasly.
When he won the final feature race in Abu Dhabi, Gasly was still leading him by 12 points, meaning even if he finished ahead, the gap would be unbreachable. Gasly won the Championship title, and Giovinazzi had to settle for second. This successful year put him on the radar for Formula 1.
Being on the radar, it wasn’t long until the most important boost in Giovinazzi's career followed: he was allocated a reserve role at both Sauber and the famous Ferrari and was actively involved in 2017 winter testing.
The biggest opportunity arose for the Italian driver when Sauber driver Pascal Wehrlein was injured during the Race of Champions. As a result, Wehrlein was unable to drive the first two Grand Prix’ of the year, giving Giovinazzi the chance of a lifetime as he enacted his role as reserve driver.
The race weekends, however, were mediocre for the Italian., leaving an impression of 12th and a DNF.
The following race weekend he returned the car to Wehrlein, ending his further chances. The race in China might be one of the toughest moments in his career, he explained. “And then I'm talking about the days after the race. I made two mistakes there and I was well aware that opportunities in Formula 1 are very few. For the first time I felt like I had missed an opportunity. I was not satisfied with myself. I could have shown so much more there. After that weekend, Wehrlein returned to the car, which was also the schedule, so I didn't get a chance to show that I wasn't the driver everyone had seen in Shanghai. As a result, I remained that driver who crashed twice in China for a long time.”
The rest of the year consisted of a few training sessions for the Ferrari-affiliated Haas team, with 2018 seeing a continuation of his roles assigned the previous year.
A Long-Awaited Breakthrough...
“I am now part of the magnifici venti, the magnificent twenty. It makes me very proud and happy that thanks to me, the Italian flag is back on the Formula One grid.”
Antonio Giovinazzi signed a contract with Alfa Romeo (formerly Sauber) for the 2019-season, making his debut as a driver alongside world champion Kimi Räikkönen, after the regularly underperforming Marcus Ericsson failed to extend his contract further, with his sponsorship money unable to bail him out. After being third driver for a couple of years, the Italian driver was very happy to finally be promoted into the Alfa Romeo-seat.
“I am now part of the magnifici venti, the magnificent twenty. It makes me very proud and happy that thanks to me, the Italian flag is back on the Formula One grid.” he said in an interview with Motorsport.com.
The first half of his rookie-season was however quite disappointing, with him only managing to score his first point during the 9th round in Austria. During the British Grand Prix he had to retire because of mechanical problems and crashed on the last lap in the Belgian Grand Prix. Giovinazzi now had just one point to his name while his teammate, Räikkönen had 31. Causing Alfa Romeo to seriously consider Giovinazzi’s future in the team.
In the second half of the season, however, he performed a lot better, finishing in the points four times, in which he finished his home-race in 9th.
In Singapore, he led the race for four laps, those being the first in his career, also marking the first time that an Alfa Romeo driver had led a race since Andrea de Cesaris did in the 1983 Belgian Grand Prix but fell back to 10th.
In Brazil, he achieved his career-best up to that point, finishing sixth, with a promotion to fifth place after Lewis Hamilton was penalised. During the 2019 season Giovinazzi collected 14 points and finished in 17th place in the championship.
Alfa Romeo retained the Italian driver for the 2020-season, along with Räikkönen.
The season started with the Austrian Grand Prix, after the original calendar was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Giovinazzi finished the first race ninth, scoring points right away.
He crashed in the Belgian Grand Prix and a wheel from his car hit George Russell's Williams causing both drivers to retire.
Another dangerous and unfortunately memorable accident followed in the Tuscan Grand Prix during the safety car restart causing four cars including Giovinazzi’s to retire. He finished in the points again in the Eifel Grand Prix and the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, finishing tenth in both races. Giovinazzi reached the third qualifying session for the first time after more than a year in Turkey, though he had to retire from the race due to gearbox problems. Over the entire season, Giovinazzi only managed to score 4 World Cup points and finished 17th in the overall standings. His performance that year wasn’t spectacular, but this could also be because of the Ferrari engine not being competitive enough, and the chassis lacking strength to compensate for the lack of power. Räikkönen only finished 16th, also not an amazing result.
2021 Struggles...
Alfa Romeo retained both drivers for the 2021 season, having the duo of Giovinazzi and Räikkönen together for a third year. With a third of the current season already over, the Italian driver hasn’t stood out much yet, but is definitely proving himself against his championship-winning teammate. His best result was a tenth place in Monaco, where he also made it into Q3 for the first time that year. This result gave him his only championship point so far, and he finds himself in 16th place in the overall standings. With a very strong midfield, and an even stronger top 3, it won’t be easy for the Italian driver to get near the results he scored in GP2, but he is driven enough to keep fighting, and let’s hope he will soon start climbing the championship standings!
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