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Giovinazzi focused on improving qualifying runs

Giovinazzi focused on improving qualifying runs

02-03-2019 14:45
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Jake Williams-Smith

Antonio Giovinazzi has made qualifying his primary focus ahead of the 2019 Formula One season getting underway in Melbourne. The Italian will experience his first full season in Formula One with Alfa Romeo Racing.

Although the 25-year-old has prior experience of Formula One in a race weekend environment after stepping in for Sauber to replace an injured Pascal Wehrlein, his crash in qualifying at the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix will be a memory he is keen to replace.

Speaking to media after his testing duties had been completed, Giovinazzi admitted that he was still focused on working on improving his qualifying consistency and would make it a key target for the season.

“I think I need to still work on qualifying. For sure I’m already in back in GP2 or F3 I was more a race driver but yeah I still need to work on qualifying.

“It’s just about taking experience, and the best experience is taking on the race weekend. Part of the problem is because I don’t think the C5 is the right tyre for (Barcelona).

“If you use it too hard in the first sector there’s no tyre left for the last few corners, so even from this point of view I need to learn how to manage the tyre for the whole lap, as that makes a big difference, but I’m here to learn, to gain experience and understand these things.

“I’m happy with the long runs, less with my qualifying effort but there will now be time to analyse it. But the big experience will come on the race weekend, where I’ll try to understand everything by then.”