Antonio Giovinazzi is hoping to gradually close the gap to Kimi Raikkonen as he gains experience during the 2019 season.
While the Italian did have two races at Sauber in 2017, this is effectively his rookie year in Formula 1 and also marks his first full year racing since GP2 in 2016.
As a result, Giovinazzi admits optimising the performance of his Alfa Romeo car will take some time as he adjusts from being a development driver to a racer.
“It’s not easy after two years without racing. It’s not really easy, especially in qualifying, you lose that push lap a little bit in qualifying,” he explained to Crash.net.
“I think to have Kimi as a teammate is a good reference. When I stop in the garage, I can watch his data, and see where I can improve.
“I need to just keep working like that, and I think all the things will come together, and there will be a lot more reasons to have a good result.”
Also keen to see Giovinazzi bring it all together is his team boss Fred Vasseur who has seen enough to think the 25-year-old can match Raikkonen.
“It’s frustrating for everyone because Antonio showed from the beginning that he has the talent,” he was quoted by GPBlog.com.
“He was very fast in Melbourne Q1, faster than Kimi or more or less the same.
“In Bahrain, the pace was there, but in qualifying, he made a small mistake at the end of the lap, but he was also a little faster than Kimi.
“If we look at last year, the start of the season was also difficult for our drivers, but we gave them a lot of support and they were able to improve during the season.
“We have to do the same with Antonio.”
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- Alfa Romeo: Raikkonen ‘simply a pleasure to work with’
For now, however, Giovinazzi is still yet to score to point in 2019 compared to 12 for the 2007 world champion, who currently sits as the top midfield driver in the championship.
“No, because I was working with him for the last two years [at Ferrari], so I know how he’s working,” he said if that was a surprise.
“He’s a fantastic driver with a lot of experience, and he knows already what he wants before the race weekend. This is something really good to see. It’s just [gaining] experience in the end.”