Giovinazzi heads Formula E testers
FERRARI FORMULA 1 PROTEGE Antonio Giovinazzi will take part in next week’s Formula E rookie test in Marrakech as the star name among an excellent 20-driver field.
The Italian made his F1 race debut in 2017 as replacement for the injured Pascal Wehrlein at Sauber, and was a contender for a full-time seat this season before Sauber opted for his fellow Ferrari junior Charles Leclerc and team regular Marcus Ericsson instead.
Giovinazzi, who has settled for a third-driver role in F1, will now make an appearance in the January 14 post-race FE rookie test in Morocco, and will pilot DS Virgin’s DSV-03 car. It comes against the backdrop of Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne evaluating a foray into the all-electric racing category with his
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles company’s Maserati brand, and is aided by Ferrari and DS Virgin sharing a major sponsor in tech company Kaspersky.
Giovinazzi will be joined at DS Virgin by BMW racer Joel Eriksson. The Swedish driver battled Mclaren F1 prodigy Lando Norris for the Formula 3 European Championship crown last year, winning seven races on his way to second in the points, and will step up to the DTM in 2018. He has already undertaken simulator work at DS Performance’s headquarters in France, where marque director Xavier Mestelan Pinon said he “impressed with his work rate and how quickly he got up to speed”.
Aside from Giovinazzi’s surprise test shot, Jaguar’s announcement that it would field Paul di Resta – alongside Pietro Fittipaldi as had been rumoured – is also a left-field choice. Di Resta has been pushing for a Williams F1 seat for 2018. The Jaguar team is assisted by Williams Advanced Engineering.
Other drivers confirmed in the past week are Mercedes DTM driver Gary Paffett, who has stated he would “absolutely” consider following the manufacturer to Formula E when it quits the German series at the end of 2018, at Venturi, while Formula 2 ace Alex Albon will slot in alongside Japanese F3 champion Mitsunori Takaboshi at Renault e.dams. NIO has announced Mazda IMSA Sportscar and Ford WEC driver Harry Tincknell and, another surprise choice, former Rebellion LMP1 privateer driver Alexandre Imperatori.
Jani out, Lopez in at DS Virgin
As well as the 20 test drivers, two race drivers will be getting used to new surroundings in Marrakech. Tom Blomqvist will make his FE race debut in place of Kamui Kobayashi at Andretti Autosport, but the main change is Neel Jani exiting Dragon Racing after just one terrible weekend. Jani blamed it on “changes that were unforeseen”, which Autosport understands links back to a pre-season problem. After signing Jani, Dragon explored a possible arrangement to embed Porsche engineers amid an encouraging testing programme, but the team decided against any tie-up. In comes Jose Maria Lopez, who was ousted by DS Virgin Racing in the summer, for the rest of the season.