Antonio Giovinazzi is doing his best to ignore the rumors about his F1 future and to remain fully focused on his job at hand with Alfa Romeo.
The rumor mill is always spinning in the F1 paddock, but the reports about who will race alongside Alfa's new recruit Valtteri Bottas next season point to Chinese F2 front-runner Guanyu Zhou to fill the Swiss outfit's second seat.
Zhou is considered to be an alluring proposition for Alfa Romeo team boss Frédéric Vasseur, as the 22-year-old is reportedly backed by a generous financial package worth an estimated $30 million, while his presence would provide marketing exposure to mainland China.
While Giovinazzi is eager for his future to be clarified as soon as possible, the Ferrari protégé is also trying to keep his head in the right place, and especially this weekend at Monza for his home race.
"Of course I want to know as soon as possible but it’s not my decision," said the 27-year-old Italian.
"My focus is more on my performance, to do my best result in the race, in the qualifying and everything and then see what will happen.
"For sure it’s always been the same September from my side over these last three years. There was always some rumours for the next year.
"For me, I don’t want to focus much on these because it’s just losing energy. I want to focus more on performance on myself and try to do my best.
"Like I say many times, it is not my decision and whatever happens will happen. My target is to be happy with myself and see what will happen."
Giovinazzi has scored but a single top-ten finish this season, but that’s' just one less than Alfa teammate Kimi Raikkonen whom he has performed generally on a par with this season.
Looking at his future line-up, Vasseur says that he hasn't ruled out retaining Gio for a fourth season. But the Frenchman might be inclined to hand a chance to a well-backed rookie given that Bottas checks the experience box.
"Everything is open, including Antonio," Vasseur told Motorsport.com. "Antonio is doing a good job. But I think that to be able to recruit and to welcome Valtteri is a huge opportunity for us.
"Then it doesn't matter if the teammate is a rookie or an experienced guy, we will benefit of the experience and the speed of Valtteri.
"I think that with Antonio, let's see over the next two or three events.
"But perhaps he has turned the page of the past, and this situation could be a good wake-up call also. I want to have a clear picture before I take any decisions with my shareholders."
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