23-year-old Italian driver Antonio Giovinazzi says he has faith in the fact that Scuderia Ferrari will help him secure his future in Formula 1 while at the same time he hopes to maximise his Haas practice outings to gather favour for a race seat in 2018. Giovinazzi has been chosen by Scuderia Ferrari as their FIA Formula 1 third and reserve driver for the 2017 season.
The Italian driver has secured a deal to run seven FP1 outings for Haas F1 team between the British Grand Prix until the end of the season. The 23-year-old made his Formula One debut during pre-season testing for Sauber and raced in the 2017 Australian Grand Prix and Chinese Grand Prix due to the fact that Pascal Wehrlein was injured and could not take part in the first two races.
Antonio Giovinazzi’s early Formula 1 opportunity did not end on a positive note as he crashed out of the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix after spinning in the wet on the home straight right under the noses of F1 team bosses. However, the 2016 GP2 Series runner-up is hoping to make amends and impress for Haas in his run of free practice sessions in order to prove his talents ahead of a potential race seat for the 2018 Formula 1 championship:
“It is a good programme, seven FP1s in 10 races, and I know all the tracks apart from Brazil and Mexico so it will be good also to learn these two tracks where I didn’t race. It’s a good opportunity for me, a lot of time in the car so this is important. Of course to drive a new car from now to the end of the season is really important for me. The target is to be there [in F1] next year, but now I focus more on what I do now with these seven FP1s, and we will see what we can do for next year.” – the yound driver said, as reported by the Italian media on Saturday.
Antonio Giovinazzi is very well aware of the fact that with only 20 race seats in Formula One for 2018 that it will be hard for him to become the first full-time Italian driver since Jarno Trulli six years ago, but feels as a Scuderia Ferrari junior driver he is in a promising position to make a breakthrough: “To get into F1 is really hard. There are not much seats. It’s not like football. But it’s just my first season in Ferrari and they are really good. I trust them, so they know what they can do for me. Now it is just time to focus on what they give me this year with seven FP1s, and then we’ll see what happens next year. Anything can happen, so I hope I can find a seat for next year.” – Antonio Giovinazzi concluded.
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