Who hoped for positive developments in the relationship between Antonio Giovinazzi and theAlfa Romeo not only will he be disappointed, but he will probably have to convince himself otherwise after the Turkish Grand Prix. Istanbul may have ruled the end of the relationship between the Apulian and the Biscione: a relationship already deteriorated by the statements of team principal Frederic Vasseur (not a week goes by without talking about a new driver to join Valtteri Bottas in 2022), and which now seems to have come to an end.
Giovinazzi asks Alfa Romeo (post-race radio): Why you didn’t tell me to push flat-out through Turn 8?# F1 #TurkishGP
– Kunal Shah (kunalashah) October 10, 2021
The fault of Istanbul, therefore. But why? Giovinazzi was not warned by the Alfa Romeo wall that he had only one lap to reach Esteban Ocon. “Why didn’t you tell me to push hard in turn 8?“, This is the radio team of # 99 right after the checkered flag. The lack of communication between Giovinazzi and the garage precluded the points area, but Alfa Romeo is not there and through the manager of track engineers Xevi Pujolar attacked his own pilot: “On lap 52 we told Antonio to switch positions with Kimi, because he was slower. The plan was to leave the position to Raikkonen, then we would change again. Antonio did not sell it. Halfway through that lap he was told to give up the position because Kimi was about a second faster, but he didn’t do it, he wanted to stay ahead. In those laps we could potentially have been faster with Kimi. And then we would have had an extra ride to reach Ocon“, These are the words reported by The-Race.
From the radio teams, it can be seen how the track engineer reminded Giovinazzi to let Raikkonen pass at the first corner of the 53rd lap, without, however, ever reassuring the Apulian about the possibility of exchanging positions again. Giovinazzi replied that he would have pushed harder especially in turn 8 to keep up with Raikkonen. But Pujolar has increased the dose: “For the team, it wasn’t ideal. I didn’t understand why we couldn’t change positions, we always had time to change again if it didn’t go well. It is important for us to reach the points and Kimi’s pace was excellent at that moment“.
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