Antonio Giovinazzi, the Italian driver involved in Formula E with the Dragon team and at the same time Scuderia Ferrari’s reserve driver in Formula 1, was interviewed by Racingnews365 and talked about his new experience in the all-electric racing series. The Ferrari reserve driver admitted he is encounterding many difficulties in adapting to the different cars and discussed about some of the main differences between the two series.
While Dragon Penske are not a front-running team in Formula E, Antonio Giovinazzi’s struggles appear to be far in excess of what you would expect from a driver which at times proved to be a solid performer in Formula 1 during his three years with Alfa Romeo. So what exactly is the issue? Below is an extract of his comments:
“I’m having a hard time here in Formula E. I can’t drive the car the way I want to at all yet, and that is partly because I have driven in F1 in recent years. F1 cars drive completely different from these Formula E cars and, because of that, it doesn’t go the way I would like. There have been no races in the past two months and, during a race weekend, you get very little time to get used to the car. Here, you have to perform immediately and that is difficult if you have little experience with the car. I just don’t get into my rhythm. I have, of course, spent quite a few hours in the simulator in the past while, but that may do more harm than good! The difference between reality and the simulator is much too great. Actually, nothing is the same in the simulator compared to the real thing racing in a Formula E car.”
Antonio Giovinazzi, who is constantly working in the Ferrari simulator ahead of each Formula 1 race in order to identify the ideal car setup which are then taken to the track in free practice by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, admitted that it is going to take some time for him to find his feet in Formula E, while at the same time confirming that his team are doing everything possible to help him adapt to these cars:
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“It will take a while before I find my rhythm in Formula E, something that is not up to the team. They really do everything they can to help me, but in the end, I have to get used to this car myself and that remains difficult. Besides that, you only get few minutes in the practice sessions, [so] you can’t afford to make mistakes. Then, [if you hit the] wall, because we only race on street circuits, that means mistakes are immediately punished.” – Scuderia Ferrari’s reserve driver explained.
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