Giovinazzi: FP1 crash won't impact chances of F1 return

Antonio Giovinazzi was sidelined from FP1 at COTA after just four laps after crashing his Haas, but the Italian insists the mishap won't weigh on his chances of securing a drive in F1 for 2023.

Giovinazzi has been earmarked by Haas as a possible replacement for Mick Schumacher, although the German and his countryman, veteran F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg are considered to be the leading candidates for the seat.

The Italian was therefore set on producing a good performance in FP1, but it all went wrong just a few laps into the session when he spun at COTA's Turn 6 and planted his VF-22 against barrier.

While the car's front wing was the only piece of bodywork that suffered from the mishap, his repeated attempts to extricate himself from the barrier eventually burnt his car's clutch, which forced him to retire from the session.

©Haas

It was a nightmare scenario, but the former Alfa Romeo charger was keen to play down the blunder, convinced that it won't have any bearing on his efforts to return to the grid in 2023.

"For sure it doesn’t help but from the other side I showed already in F1 what I can do. I know that it’s not up to this one lap and few corners that will end my career," he said.

"So let’s see what happens. [I’m] just looking forward now and seeing what happens.

"I did three years in F1. If people want me it’s not because of today, it’s in the past what I did and what I will do. So let’s see."

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Giovinazzi was at a loss to explain why his car suddenly lost grip on his approach to Turn 6 but the 28-year-old suspected a gust of wind had brought on the mistake.

"I wasn’t pushing," he said. "If I was pushing, it was the last lap of the session, giving all in that lap to surprise everyone, but I wasn’t. It was only my second push, first push with DRS on.

"So I just lost the car. It can be the wind, it can be just a mistake, I don’t know, but it is like this."

Haas team boss Guenther Steiner explained that the US outfit opted to replace the clutch during FP1 as it didn't want to risk Kevin Magnussen's later afternoon session, a time consuming task that ended Gio's session on the spot.

"He burned the clutch out so the clutch overheated, we can’t take the risk not to change it because if you have a failure, then you can’t do FP2," said Steiner.

"But on your third lap to put it in the wall, it’s not fantastic, to say the least.

"I haven’t spoken to Antonio, I guess he got caught out with a gust of wind. That’s my guess. The first lap was OK. It is what it is."

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