Antonio Giovinazzi, the third driver for Scuderia Ferrari, took the wheel of the Haas VF-17 in FP1 at the Silverstone circuit in England on Friday as the American team's regular driver Kevin Magnussen graciously relinquished his seat for Giovinazzi to gain some additional Formula One experience.
The 23-year-old from Martina Franca, Italy, drove a Formula One car earlier this year when he subbed for the injured Pascal Wehrlein at Sauber during the first week of winter testing at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya and again during the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix. This was the first of seven FP1 sessions where Giovinazzi will drive for Haas F1 Team.
Giovinazzi ran a total of 24 laps, the best being a 1:32.031 on his 22nd lap that put him 16th overall. It was a relatively straightforward session for Giovinazzi, who ran exclusively on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow soft tire.
“First of all, I want to say thank you to Scuderia Ferrari for this opportunity. It was a really good session,” Antonio said. “My last test was Bahrain with Ferrari a long time ago, so to be back in a car was really nice. It was a session to just get as many laps as we could. We didn't make any mistakes, we tried quite a few things, and I was confident in the car.”
“I was really happy with our performance. It's nice to see how different teams work. I'm looking forward to my remaining six FP1 performances with Haas F1 Team. It's a fantastic team, so I'm really happy to join them and I'll do my best. I started this FP1 session at one of the hardest tracks with a lot of downforce and a lot of fast corners."
"I think to be four-tenths from Romain is strong. He, of course, has a lot of experience and laps to start. I can't wait to jump in the car again in Hungary. It will also be hard as it's a difficult track, but I've already got some confidence from the car so it'll be a little easier
