Alfa Romeo boss Fred Vasseur has played down suggestions Antonio Giovinazzi's future is under threat.
The Italian has had a tricky season scoring just one point compared to teammate Kimi Raikkonen's 31, yet his pace compared to the 2007 world champion has been stronger than it would appear.
Even so, the fact Giovinazzi is struggling to produce the results in an ultra-competitive midfield is still a concern but Vasseur isn't for pushing him out the door yet.
"Antonio is doing very well in qualifying," the Frenchman told Speed Week.
"He is now riding at Kimi's level and I am not worried about Giovinazzi. In my opinion, Antonio is not under pressure either, we must remain calm and be patient with him."
Also Read:
- Giovinazzi: Raikkonen really does know what he's doing
- Giovinazzi confident results will come with experience at Alfa
Giving his own defence, the 25-year-old pointed to the challenge he has faced in 2019, returning to full-time action after two years as a Ferrari reserve.
"I have not been driving for two years and it is not easy," Giovinazzi said. "In 2017 I drove two races and in 2018 I was driving only at Le Mans.
"Then you are back in the royal class and you immediately fight against the best.
"I have not changed my goal: I want to improve myself further during the rest of the season and I want the old feeling I am working on that now.
"At the start of the season, I had some problems, but I found the right path in the last GP weekends."
Also impacting Giovinazzi has been the varying performance of Alfa Romeo but progress has been made thanks to upgrades in the races before the summer.
And Vasseur is very happy with the trajectory of the Swiss outfit.
"We are improving drastically," he was quoted by F1i.com. "Last year we were 2.5s off, we are on average 1.5 and [in the most recent races] we were 1.2.
"For us it’s huge. Then we have to translate it in points, and that’s another story. At least in terms of potential, we made a huge step forward.
"Overall we’ve made progress of 1-1.5%, and this is huge. The next step for us is probably to be a bit more ready at race one, for next season."
