Alfa Romeo cleared the air with Giovinazzi about the orders from the Turkish F1 team

Giovinazzi received the call to let Raikkonen pass in the closing stages of the race in Istanbul Park two weeks ago after being quickly caught up by his Alfa Romeo team-mate.

But Giovinazzi didn’t evade for Raikkonen when he tried to overtake Esteban Ocon for the final point in P10, leaving 0.8 seconds behind the checkered flag. Xevi Pujolar, Head of Circuit Development at Alfa Romeo, said after the race that Giovinazzi “decided for himself that he wanted to stay ahead”.

Discussing the incident on the Friday ahead of the United States Grand Prix, Team Principal Vasseur said that Giovinazzi was late in his approach to being too conservative but he did not want to blame him.

“At some point Kimi pushed more and we thought we could keep the tires and asked Antonio to either push or let him go,” said Vasseur.

“He was probably too conservative, but I don’t want to blame him. But we had the discussion.

“He was a bit lost with the amount of attacks he has to make that he could certainly be a lot faster. And he was too conservative.

“We clearly lost the points, but I don’t want to blame Antonio for leading the discussion. I think he stuck to the plan and when we had the window of opportunity to push more, it took him two or three laps to understand that he could push more. It is like it is.”

When asked whether the team had cleaned the air with Giovinazzi, Vasseur replied: “Yes.”

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Giovinazzi’s future at Alfa Romeo remains unclear beyond the end of the season as the team continues to weigh driver options to partner with Valtteri Bottas in 2022.

Guanyu Zhou was believed to be the leader of the place, but the possibility of an Andretti takeover from Sauber has created uncertainty about how the team will proceed for second place.

Giovinazzi said Thursday in Austin that it was “not ideal” not knowing whether he would stay at Alfa Romeo for the next season and accepted that there was “some pressure on me”.

Vasseur hesitated to comment on the team ownership situation but said it was “in no rush” to opt for the second seat.

“We have a few options and we will make a decision soon,” he said.