Ferrari Chairman Sergio Marchionne says the Italian team remains fully behind Antonio Giovinazzi despite refusals by both Haas and Sauber to take on the Italian for 2018.
After finishing runner-up to Pierre Gasly in GP2 in 2016, Giovinazzi was promoted to third driver at the Scuderia and would compete in the first two races with Sauber, after Pascal Wehrlein injured his back at the Race of Champions.
A strong impression made in Australia was undone, however, by a bad weekend in China with crashes both in qualifying and the race in tricky conditions. Later in the year, the 23-year-old would conduct a number of Friday Practice outings with Haas but the American outfit has since refused to have him back in any role next season.
“I don’t think it helped us or our drivers,” Team Principal Guenther Steiner told Ekstra Bladet newspaper explaining why. “I cannot say how negative it was, but it was not positive. We will see what we are doing next year, but we have not talked about it yet.”
In response, Marchionne defended Giovinazzi and admitted it was disappointing not to have him alongside Charles Leclerc at Sauber after the Swiss team elected to retain Marcus Ericsson.
“Giovinazzi is a good guy, and it’s just a question time. He should get his chance,” he said. “He will be Ferrari’s third driver and he has a programme of testing with Sauber. We understand his desire to race, but at the moment there are no vacancies.
“The agreement with Sauber is a way to find an outlet for the youngsters in our Driver Academy and it will take time to streamline this system.”
