The One Big Improvement Antonio Giovinazzi Would Aim At Silverstone

In 2019, young Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi collected 14 points and emerged seventeenth on the Driver Standings. Surely, he could’ve done better. But quite frankly, it wasn’t the worst possible finish for a young driver who was competing in his rookie season.

Truth be told, depending on who you were, there were primarily two ways to make sense of Antonio Giovinazzi’s 2019 season. First, that it was a slow but positive start in the sense that the Italian was able to score some useful points whilst driving not the strongest machine on the grid.

And the other that the-then 25-year-old enjoyed a far better second half of 2019 than the one prior to the yearly summer break.

That being said, it must be recollected that it wasn’t before his ninth Grand Prix that year that Antonio finally managed to open his F1 account, as he collected a solitary albeit very valuable point from the Styrian Alps bagging a memorable P10 at Spielberg, home to the Austrian Grand Prix.

This was a huge moment for a driver who, just in his second race at the pinnacle of the sport came mighty close to grabbing points, his P11 at Bahrain’s Sakhir, 2019 giving early indication of his talent.

But all of that being told, do you know the most important statistic in the 2019 run for the product of the Ferrari Driver Academy?

The only race where the Martina Franca-born driver registered a DNF was at the Silverstone, home to the British Grand Prix, and the very track where Antonio Giovinazzi will, in a matter of few hours, begin only his second F1 British Grand Prix?

That’s right. By lap 14 of the 52-lap race last year, Antonio was actually doing pretty well, to give an example of his race before it got spoiled.

He was, at that stage, running in tenth and looking in decent shape to even bag a P8 or P9, had he raced on and driven a classic two-stop in the end. Alas, it wasn’t to be!

In the approach to Turn 16, Antonio Giovinazzi spun around and went wide, ending ultimately on the gravel trap on the exit of the Vale chicane. And thus, on Lap 20, with only 32 more to go, the young Alfa Romeo driver experienced a stale end to the first British Grand Prix challenge of his F1 career.

That is precisely why, come race-day, i.e., August 2, 2020 the one big thing the Alfa Romeo driver would be mindful of would be to drive a smooth race and compose a focused challenge in the upcoming 52-lap contest. Forget scoring points, what Antonio would be focused on achieving would be drive, first of all, an error-free race.

A must for him in Round-four of the current season! That being said, given that the Friday free practice race pace of the two Alfas hasn’t been that underwhelming with Kimi finishing the day strongly on tenth, with Antonio on thirteenth, it could be said that the white-and-red liveried cars haven’t looked that far off the midfield pace.

Should it be a dry session, it would augur well for the raw pace of the two Alfas that won’t have to complain for a lack of grip. Though the Ferrari-powered cars have, as per the first three rounds, seemed very low on downforce and horsepower, it would be an utterly different scenario should the Kimi-Antionio pair manage to put together a gritty quali run.

Suggested Read: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth fastest on Friday, but from his perspective the real fight is for Saturday.

So what can the duo manage in their flying lap times? Can the two Alfa Romeos make it to the final round of qualifying (Q3) on Saturday? That honestly, would be the most important sight to see tomorrow!