Giovinazzi on the pressure of having Kimi as teammate: “I can learn a lot from him and he is a good reference for my career”. Giovinazzi on the pressure of having Kimi as teammate.

Antonio Giovinazzi about Kimi Raikkonen: “He’s really strong. You could see that at Hockenheim quali, he set the fastest time in second sector. I think he’s really pushing hard. It’s better for me because I have a strong teammate who is a good reference for my career. I think that’s positive for me.”

But is he under pressure having a world champion as a teammate? – “It’s never easy. There are positive and negative aspects of course. On one hand, I can learn a lot from him, look at his data and see what he does on and off the track. On the other hand, he is a world champion who always delivers. He will make no mistakes, has a lot of experience and knows what he is doing.”

Still Antonio Giovinazzi is happy to have Kimi Räikkönen at his side: “He is a fast driver with a lot of experience. If I ask him a question, I get my answer and personally I’ve grown since the first race until now. Kimi also has his share in this because I watched him closely. I looked at his onboard footage of the races at first. I discovered things he does differently. I’ve adopted these things in the meantime. Experience is the key factor and it only comes by racing”.

The communication with Kimi seems to work smoothly: “He’s not one to speak at meetings for an hour. He gets to the point immediately and that’s also good for the team,” says Giovinazzi. “I also always get straight to the point with him if there’s a problem to solve.”

At the same time, Kimi is reluctant to give an assessment of Antonio Giovinazzi: “That’s not my job. Go down there, you’ll find any boss who can say something about it. I’m not the one who has to give him a grade. You have done that already. I think he has the speed. But of course he still has a lot to learn.”