Formula 1: 5 possible Ferrari drivers for 2021
By Asher Fair
Antonio Giovinazzi
Ferrari have the right to choose one of Alfa Romeo Racing’s two drivers every year. In 2018 when they confirmed that Charles Leclerc was set to join the team from Alfa Romeo Racing (then Alfa Romeo Sauber) and it was announced that Kimi Raikkonen was set to move from Ferrari to Alfa Romeo Racing as his replacement, Raikkonen wasn’t actually Leclerc’s replacement.
Leclerc was Ferrari’s selection for Alfa Romeo Racing for the 2018 season, but for the 2019 season, Raikkonen was not. Ferrari selected Antonio Giovinazzi as the driver who would technically replace Leclerc ahead of the 2019 season. Raikkonen replaced Marcus Ericsson.
Despite the fact that Giovinazzi struggled throughout the first half of the 2019 season, Ferrari backed him to return to Alfa Romeo Racing in the 2020 season, and he ended up being confirmed by the team for 2020 shortly thereafter.
After he scored just one point in the first 13 races of the 2019 season compared to Raikkonen’s 31, he outscored Raikkonen 13 to 12 over the course of the season’s final eight races. He recorded a career-high fifth place finish in the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Despite that improvement, Giovinazzi is still not ready to be a Ferrari driver, and there is hardly anybody who would debate that. But he has confirmed that he is eyeing a seat at Ferrari for the 2021 season, and if he continues to develop in 2020, landing a ride with the team is a definite possibility.
Giovinazzi could be the perfect answer to some of the teammate controversy at Ferrari with which the 2019 season was littered. Leclerc would be the team’s clear top driver while Giovinazzi would enter the team in somewhat of a number two driver role, and there would be little room to debate that hierarchy.