Antonio Giovinazzi becomes the latest ex-F1 driver to join the Formula E field when he competes with Dragon Penske in the season opener in Diriyah this week.
Some of his predecessors became FE champions. Others have quickly disappeared from the world of electric racing.
How will Giovinazzi fare? Here are our writers’ verdicts:
He has to play a long game
SamSmith
If Giovinazzi survives this season with Dragon Penske and is able to end up beating his teammate Sergio Sette Camara, then he has a shot at making a career in Formula E.
However, the difficulty of these reservations should not be underestimated.
Dragon has had several personnel changes in recent months and, like the rest of the field, has been hampered by not having the opportunity to test and develop its EV-5 car due to the two-year homologation rule.
Last season it picked up points, mainly through luck, but 2022 will be much more difficult to get those points, especially with the new qualification format which is expected to offer a much more hierarchical structure in the 11 teams, rather than the bottom regular ones opportunities to give shine.
Ultimately, much will depend on whether Giovinazzi can cope with the inevitable lack of results and the fact that the vast majority of the field will essentially be in a different race than he is most of the time.
Now the good news. In his new engineer, Connor Summerville, he has a young, ambitious and, according to some of his former Jaguar Racing colleagues, talented driver.
He also seemed to have a pragmatic and realistic approach to the Valencia test, one he has to cement almost from race to race.
Another light source at the end of the bleak 2022 tunnel for Giovinazzi could be what Dragon Penske is up to next.
For Gen3, it needs to partner with a manufacturer. If it gets a cheap deal with a strong factory, it could be a decent spot in 2023.
He will be second best at Dragon
Josh Sutill
Beating his Dragon teammate Sette Camara will not be an easy task and it is an obstacle that could derail Giovinazzi’s Formula E career before it even gets started.
I don’t understand why Giovinazzi is as interested in making Formula E work as an F1 alternative as successful F1 switchers like Sebastien Buemi and Stoffel Vandoorne have been.
And what would demotivate him even more is a fight against former Red Bull junior and McLaren F1 tester Sette Camara.
The Brazilian’s first full season in Formula E was an entertaining mix of heroic giant kills in qualifying coupled with some moody moments and anonymous racing – something that can largely be attributed to Dragon’s underwhelming package.
But there was raw underlying speed not too dissimilar to the solidly comparable speed he showed in Formula 2 in 2018 as Lando Norris’ Carlin teammate.
Given his experience advantage in the Championship and the same package from Dragon as last season, Sette Camara has a good chance of outshining Giovinazzi in much the same way Edoardo Mortara outshined ex-F1 driver Felipe Massa at Venturi.
When that happens we’ll get a sense of just how committed Giovinazzi is to Formula E as he’ll either dig deep and adapt ahead of the start of Gen3 or be another name on the list of recent F1 converts to die fight and leave the Formula E
He will be the quintessential Dragon FE driver
Scott Mitchell
Giovinazzi’s time in Formula 1 can probably be summed up as obviously showing impressive one-lap pace from time to time, but never convincing anyone that he was capable of a consistent performance.
That means he’s perfectly positioned to be the quintessential Dragon Formula E driver. The team was just as capable of letting its driver put in the odd mega qualifying performance as it was of drifting through a weekend completely anonymously.
It’s mostly the latter. So I would expect Giovinazzi to get a giantkilling result if the car is capable of it, but the main constraint will not be on his side. He will swim against the tide in a compromised setup.
He’s moving from the wrong F1 team to the wrong FE team
Ed Straw
When I told Giovinazzi late last season that his worst time was at Alfa Romeo, his response was to point out that “a good career in Formula 1 also depends on being in the right team at the right time”.
Unfortunately, given Dragon’s struggles, he could be saying the same thing about Formula E in a year or two.
There is no doubt that the 28-year-old is a good driver. He’s certainly fast, has honed his skills in Formula 1 and was really eager to take on the challenge of Formula E as he wanted a racing program in 2022.
The danger is that given Dragon’s well-known limitations, he’ll dip into the right championship but with the wrong team.
He’s certainly been impressed with those he’s worked with on testing, and Dragon is known to have some very experienced staff, but the fear is that the package under him simply won’t allow it to succeed.
And he could get lost in Formula E as a consequence, not because he’s unable to, but because, to extend the metaphor, the boat he’s in is full of holes.
No doubt he will do a good job and bring a good attitude to the team and make the most of it. But for a driver fresh out of F1 and determined to prove his worth while looking for a way back onto the Grand Prix grid, the risk is that he just doesn’t have much to do and there’s another Season with modest results in modest machines will .
He’ll get out of there quickly
Matt beer
The level of driver and staff turnover at Dragon is quite spectacular – and not in a good way.
Many people have gone there and done their best under almost impossible circumstances and Giovinazzi will join that list.
Coming from Formula 1 and having his eye on a place up the Formula E grid or a more prolific switch to sportscars, I can’t see him staying in that spot for long if Dragon lives up to its reputation as a… cheerful driver will meet -go around.
His F1 career was probably a season too long given his achievements. His Formula E career may not be as long as his enthusiasm for it deserves.
