Giovinazzi: I don’t feel like this is my end in F1

Michelle Foster
Alfa Romeo's farewell message to Antonio Giovinazzi. Abu Dhabi December 2021

GIOVINAZZI Antonio (ita), Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN C41, farewell decoration on the car during the Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021. Abu Dhabi December 2021

Ahead of his final race with Alfa Romeo, Antonio Giovinazzi says this is not the end of his Formula 1 story.

Last month, after weeks of speculation, Giovinazzi confirmed that he would be leaving Alfa Romeo at the end of this season.

Instead he’ll be racing in Formula E, having signed with Dragon Racing for the 2022 campaign.

The Italian lost his Alfa Romeo seat to Formula 2 driver Guanyu Zhou, and made his thoughts on that abundantly clear at the time.

“Formula 1 is talent, cars, risk, speed,” he wrote on social media, “but when money rules, it can be ruthless.”

Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo exit also means the end of his Formula 1 career as all the seats for the 2022 season were already filled when he lost his job.

He has stated that he is hoping to stay on as a Ferrari test and reserve driver but the Scuderia have yet to make any announcement regarding that.

And maybe, just maybe, he’ll be back in 2023. At least he feels that is a possibility.

“Final race for now,” he told the official F1 website.

“I think it has been good to work and to be in F1, a lot of good memories, bad memories, like everything in life.

“I think for now I want to just enjoy this last race with the team. We are still pushing like we did last week in Saudi.

“And then we’ll see. If we can score some points on Sunday it would be good to end with a good result.”

Giovinazzi scored his best result of this season, a P9 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, only his second top-ten finish.

Asked if he was feeling emotional ahead of his last race, he reiterated that he does not believe this is the end.

“No, because inside of myself I don’t feel like this is my end in F1,” he said.

 

“For now I just want to enjoy this last race with the team and after that I will think straight away about Formula E as that start soon in January.

“But for now I just want to enjoy it but like I said for me this doesn’t feel like it is my last race in Formula 1.”

Alfa Romeo and F1 are also saying farewell to Kimi Raikkonen this weekend, the Finn retiring after 19 years on the grid.

 

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