The rain began to fall six laps from the finish of Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix, which was perhaps the most significant part of the race. This sparked frenetic radio exchanges between all of the drivers and their engineers as they sought to decide whether to pit or not – all of the drivers except Antonio Giovinazzi, who later revealed that he had no radio for the entire race.
Giovinazzi qualified 18th despite a heavy crash in second practice (see video below), but the team received a gearbox penalty on Sunday before the Grand Prix, and given that Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and Nicholas Latifi would be relegated to the back of the grid due to engine penalties, the Alfa Romeo driver was actually promoted to P17 on the grid. But, as he stated, things didn’t get any better from there.
“Yes, had contact – I don’t know with who – in Turn 2, and I lost a little bit of positions there and then, then no radio from Lap 1 so no communication with the team and in the end it didn’t help with these conditions…” he said.
The damage to Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo was caused by collision with Haas’ Mick Schumacher heading into Turn 2 after the lights went down – but the Italian soldiered on.
However, while others, including teammate Kimi Raikkonen, gained when the rain began to fall near the end of the race – the Finn finishing eighth with an opportune Lap 47 intermediate pit stop – Giovinazzi still didn’t have radio communication and thus pitted too late, on Lap 50, losing any potential advantage in the rain and eventually finishing 16th.
“It has been a difficult afternoon, especially when the rain started at the end of the race, and I couldn’t talk to the pits about the tyre change. I’m pleased for the team’s result, but I’m already looking forward to Turkey,” he added.
Team Principal Frederic Vasseur praised his driver for performing under tough conditions, as he said: “Despite a difficult Saturday, we entered the race with some quiet optimism as we knew we would be in a position to fight. Kimi had a good start to jump to P10, while Antonio was hit and had to recover from the back. He was in a few good fights and made some nice overtaking moves –all the more so as he had no radio.”
Alfa Romeo has yet to confirm who will drive alongside Valtteri Bottas in 2022, and Giovinazzi is undoubtedly under pressure; his only point-scoring race this season was Monaco in May. The weekend of October 8th is dedicated to Turkey.
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