Home race saved Giovinazzi's career: 'It was much easier after that'

Antonio Giovinazzi's first season had not been particularly impressive, but the Italian has bounced back well in 2020. The Alfa Romeo driver wants to continue those good developments into next season.

Formula 1 welcomed many new rookies in 2019, but the newcomer who fell a little way between the violence of Lando Norris, George Russell and Alexander Albon is Antonio Giovinazzi. His rookie season was not one to write home about, but last year the Italian recovered well and was able to score as many points as teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

"Overall I am very happy with the progress I have made during the season and especially compared to 2019. Of course, I am still young and have a lot to improve. Next season I want to take the next step and hopefully we have a better car to fight more at the front," Giovinazzi told Crash.net in an interview.

Learning from your mistakes

The turnaround for Giovinazzi didn't happen in 2020, but already in his first season. At the Belgian Grand Prix, he seemed to be storming towards his first point, but crashed on the last lap and remained at zero. "Of course it was not the best race. Well, it was one of my best races up to that point. The important thing is not to not do those things, but to learn from those mistakes and that's what I did."

"I put that race behind me straight away, especially because after Spa I had a very important weekend with a home race at Monza." There, the Italian certainly made a statement by scoring his first points of the season. "After that moment your confidence goes up a lot because the result is so good. After that, it all goes a lot easier." That has clearly proved to be the case given the Alfa Romeo driver's results and has saved his fledgling F1 career.