Antonio Giovinazzi could well lose his place at Alfa Romeo for next year. The Italian didn’t look like the favorite for the last available F1 seat for 2022, but ignoring a team order means Giovinazzi may have harmed his chances even further.
For the 2022 Formula 1 season, there is still one seat left and that is the second seat with Alfa Romeo. Valtteri Bottas has already been confirmed by the team as the replacement for Kimi Raikkonen, but the second seat has not yet been announced. There seems little confidence in Giovinazzi, who will probably have to relinquish his spot.
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This, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, was made all the more clear at the Turkish Grand Prix, where Giovinazzi ignored a team order to let his teammate pass. Raikkonen had been driving on intermediates for a while and had more pace, but on new intermediates Giovinazzi refused to let him passed. This came to the frustration of his team, who thought that Raikkonen had the pace to finish in 10th place and thus score a point.
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Misunderstanding at Alfa Romeo
“We asked the drivers to change positions, but Antonio started to pick up the pace and decided he wanted to stay ahead. I did not understand why we could not change our cars. Eventually, depending on the track situation, we would have restored order . It was important to score points and Kimi’s pace was better”, said Xavi Pujolar, head of Alfa Romeo’s track engineers.
With this action it became painfully clear that Giovinazzi might also know where he stands for next year. Frederic Vasseur has already spoken to several candidates and Guanyu Zhou seems to be the favorite to win the seat. Formula 2 frontrunner, Oscar Piastri and Formula E champion, Nyck de Vries, also seem to have a chance.
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