Alfa Romeo went empty-handed from a Grand Prix on Sunday for the 12th time this year. But things could have turned out differently if Antonio Giovinazzi had followed his team’s instructions.
Giovinazzi crossed the finish line less than a second behind the last scorer, Esteban Ocon, who fought to the finish line in his alpine after deciding not to change his tires.
But a few laps earlier, Giovinazzi had ignored an instruction to let his team-mate pass him. Raikkonen drove much faster before getting stuck behind Giovinazzi and would have had a better chance of catching up and overtaking Ocon before the finish.
The 2007 world champion switched to a new set of intermediate tires three laps before Giovinazzi and flew in the second stint, at times faster than the leader Valtteri Bottas. Raikkonen caught up with his team-mate in 12th and 13th place with up to two seconds per lap.
Giovinazzi got a “reference” lap time of 1’33.5, but ran in the 1’35. At some point his race engineer Jorn Becker told him that he was losing “everywhere when braking”.
On the 50th lap, Raikkonen reduced his lap time to 1’32.5, 2.8 seconds faster than Giovinazzi. Alfa Romeo called to swap drivers, which Giovinazzi was told twice.
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“Swap positions with Kimi at the back of turn one, he’s much faster now,” said Becker. Giovinazzi kept his position but told the team that he would increase his pace. “Turn eight is better for the rear, so I’ll push now,” he said.
The team gave him a new reference lap time of 1’32.5, and although Giovinazzi improved his pace, he only came down to 1’33.1. Meanwhile, Raikkonen, who was told that we would swap positions at turn one, could only wait behind his team-mate.
The two caught two cars in front of them: Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo, who was also struggling with his tires. Both Alfa Romeo drivers overtook the McLaren on lap 55 and started their final lap five seconds behind Ocon.
“Before Antonio is Ocon, Ocon is P10,” advised Raikkonen’s engineer Julian Simon-Chautemps. “Yes, maybe we should have thought about it a little earlier, we could catch him,” replied Raikkonen.
Giovinazzi almost caught up with Ocon, but came out of the last corner too late to pass the Alpine and crossed the finish line seven tenths of a second behind. Raikkonen was on his heels until turn 12 on the last lap, when he ran far and then had to let Max Verstappen pass to lap him.
“Antonio was told,” Raikkonen heard on his radio after he had crossed the line.
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2021 Turkish Grand Prix
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