F1 | Giovinazzi mortified for the umpteenth time by Alfa Romeo Racing's strategies

It happened again, but this time it was big. Antonio Giovinazzi and Alfa Romeo Racing have been at loggerheads for several weeks, and throughout the season there have been multiple strategies aimed at ruining the races of the driver from Martina Franca. On this lap, however, it makes even more noise, because the #99 was in seventh position after a great start, in which he managed to avoid the accident between Bottas and Ricciardo, even managing to overtake a Ferrari, that of Carlos Sainz.

We want to do a small but necessary Premise before continuing: it is not an outright defense against Antonio, just because he is Italian, for the writer he is a very normal driver, who can easily be in Formula 1, but it is not a scandal not to have him on the grid from next season, many I'm like him and there's no reason that necessarily has to include him among the starters of the Circus. Having said that however, there is a limit to everything. Mind you, Giovinazzi has made some mistakes this year, even gross ones, one above all in Monza when he was in the top positions after another great start, but at Roggia he didn't manage the situation well and ended up on the wall.

For this reason, in light of everything, the substitution can also be there, whether a Zhou takes his place, with a suitcase of several tens of millions of dollars, is another matter. He is not happy, but in the most absolute way, that his team treats him as if he were a naughty child or a test driver, as many have said in recent hours, due to what happened in Mexico City. The team called him back to the pits to put on hard tires and therefore get to the end, only for them to put him back behind the Ricciardo/Bottas duo, who had already stopped and absolutely didn't have the pace to be able to recover. At that point Antonio found himself behind a Mercedes and wasn't going too much faster to be able to overtake the two, and here's the big deal.

THE CONTROVERSIAL EPISODES

At the end of the race Giovinazzi, after a eloquent radio team “Guys, thanks for the great strategy,” at the explicit request of Mara Sangiorgio di Sky, he made it clear that Alfa Romeo Racing didn't help him, to put it mildly: “I didn't want to believe it until today, but I'm very disappointed”. We had already had the warnings, since the beginning of the season, when in Bahrain they mounted the wrong tire in the garage, or at Imola, when he was forced to make an extra stop due to an unclear brake problem. Let's not forget what happened in Spain, in Barcelona, ​​when the mechanics realized they had a new flat tire in their hands. TO Silverstone then, decidedly off timing and Giovinazzi pitting too late. In Turkey then the turning point, with Antonio who disobeyed team orders, who wanted Raikkonen in front of him to try to catch Ocon, tenth.

From that moment on the split is total, so much so that a Austin the engineer turns to a radio team where the Apulian was asking for clarification regarding a position gained or not beyond the track limits, and from the garage comes a peremptory “Return the position, don't argue!”. Alfa Romeo Racing, once Sauber, is no stranger to inability to manage drivers, see what happened with Van Der Garde in the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, when he showed up dressed in his racing suit but was not a starter. At the time, Monisha Kaltenborn's management caused the team to sink, and it was thought that with the arrival of Frederic Vasseur things would change.

Well, the economic problems seem to be a distant memory thanks also to the intervention of Alfa Romeo and Ferrari, but as regards the management of the team, we ask ourselves some questions. It is well known that the current team principal and CEO of the Sauber group has never looked favorably on Giovinazzi, who is actually on the track thanks to the Scuderia di Maranello, which from this year no longer has any power over the choice of the driver. However, this in no way justifies such treatment to the detriment of a professional, who is also clearly growing, but we repeat, this is not intended to be an article that forces Alfa to renew with Antonio.

There can always be misunderstandings within a team, but here it is as if Alfa Romeo Sauber wanted discredit Giovinazzi and show that the results are negative in order to justify stepping aside to take on a driver, apparently Zhou, who is young, but who in fact on the track we don't believe can give, at least in the immediate future, a much better contribution than that of the Apulian, if not in the team coffers. Then let's face it, if the results have not arrived, fake strategies aside, it is also thanks to a car that is unlikely to be able to stay ahead of Williams, which these days is certainly not that of Prost, Hill or Villeneuve.

We hope that Antonio can conclude this season in the best possible way, and we wish him the best with Ferrari in other places, also hoping to be able to see him again in Formula 1. And above all we can't wait for this torment to end, also because of the posts on social media we are happy to do without Alfa Romeo Racing.

A brave performance by Antonio but today it wasn't meant to be. We win as a team, we lose as a team – and as a team, we'll get back stronger. #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/FrmgP34ifJ

- Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN (@alfaromeoracing) November 7, 2021