Antonio Giovinazzi has spoken highly of Kimi Raikkonen as he reflects on their first half a season together at Alfa Romeo.
The Italian has been getting more competitive against the 2007 world champion, but still has just one point to his name in Austria compared to 31 for the Finn.
Speaking last month at Hockenheim, however, Giovinazzi admits the experience of partnering with Raikkonen has been very positive.
“To have a world champion driver in the team, you have positive things and negative things,” he said.
“Positive things are you can learn from him, watch his data, watch what he’s doing in meetings or on the track or whatever, you can learn how much is possible compared to a normal driver – he’s a world champion driver so he’s like a target for you.
“From the other side, of course, he’s a world champion driver and also in terms of result he will be always there, he will never make mistakes, he has a lot of experience, he knows what to do, so my race pace can be less compared to Kimi.”
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Asked what specifically stands out when working with Kimi, Giovinazzi pointed to his knowledge of how to get the maximum from each race weekend.
“I don’t think it’s only one point, it’s just from when he comes from Thursday to Sunday, how he prepares the weekend, he knows already what he wants, before FP1,” he explained.
“He knows this track I need this one, or I need this thing, he knows what he wants. From my side I have no experience and I try to be focused but I miss that part that makes a lot of difference.
“I was watching his onboard after a few races and I saw something I was not doing and now I am doing – so experience is the main thing but I think it will come with races.”
Of course, the other aspect of working with Raikkonen is dealing with no fuss attitude, but the Ferrari-backed driver welcomes it.
“Yeah this is another good point, he’s not a guy speaking for one hour, he’s speaking to the point,” he said.
“I think it’s good for the team and for me to go on point, tell what is the problem and what can be done to solve the problem.”
