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Giovinazzi: Sauber's 2019 target is 'best of the rest'

Published on 30 Jan 2019 13:06
4
By: Fergal Walsh

Antonio Giovinazzi says that Sauber is targeting the best of the rest slot for the 2019 Formula 1 season. The Hinwil outfit started the 2018 campaign in a poor state, but successfully developed the C37 throughout the nine months of the championship calendar.

At the end of the year, the team had arguably the fourth best car in the field, with Charles Leclerc scoring three seventh-place finishes at the final three Grands Prix of the season.

However, a large gap remains between the race-winning teams of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull and the rest of the field. Giovinazzi says that fourth in the championship would be a healthy result for Sauber, after being backmarkers for a handful of years.

But the Italian knows that Renault'a continuing improvement will pose a threat to those goals: "I think it will be a really high target for Sauber to be the fourth team," the 2016 GP2 runner-up said.

"Renault is really strong, will be really strong next year also with their drivers. So we don’t know yet," Giovinazzi added. "Next year will be a different car. We’ll see. The target for sure is to be the best of the rest but it’s a really high target. We will try."

Giovinazzi made his F1 bow in 2017 with Sauber, standing in for Pascal Wehrlein at the opening two rounds of the season. This year, his first full season in the sport, he will partner 2007 world champion who joins after a five-year stint at Ferrari.

F1 News Pascal Wehrlein Antonio Giovinazzi Charles Leclerc Bob Said Sauber Mercedes Renault Ferrari

Replies (4)

LightIsRight

Posts: 113
We should start an article with each teams targets:

Merc - championship
Ferrari - championship
Red bull - try not to blow up/couple race wins
Renault - 4th in championship with couple podiums
Sauber - 4th in championship
Racing point - 4th in championship
Haas - hope Ferrari makes decent parts to race midfield easily?
McLaren - just do better than last year!
Williams - just do MUCH better than last year
Torro Rosso - be red bulls b#$%h and rush Honda development.
- + 0
- Jan 30 2019 - 13:46
calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
Personally, Im not as sure as the rest that Renault will be P4. They had so much luck last year, and we saw how far up luck (and Alonso) brought McLaren. If they do get to P4, methinks it'll be more due to the drivers and thanks to Haas bollocksing up and Force Sorry not living up to the standards due to running with maple syrup instead of oil rather than the car being good.
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- Jan 30 2019 - 18:53
- Kean
  
  Posts: 692
  I'm keeping my fingers crossed about Renault. If they improve, then their driver line up could deliver some great races. Also, if they improve on the PU-side it will benefit McLaren, so hope, hope. Regarding Racing Point and Haas, they should be able to deliver top midfield cars, but I have a feeling that the only car that will be top midfield is Perez's. I have little faith in Stroll, and I think there's a reason McLaren dropped Magnussen as evident by his 2nd half of last season (and while at Renault he sometimes had difficulties beating Palmer). Grosjean... he is fast, but he can't keep it together.
  + 0
  
  Jan 30 2019 - 19:54
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Personally, Im no Renault fan. The drivers are great, the livery is cool, but Im no fan of Renault the company or its heads, and Im already in the Glorious Nippon Camp, in which I am the Glowing Swedish Vamp. I'd really wanna see McLaren git gud and beat or challenge them, a rival team battle between same-supply cars could be healthy for F1, methinks. I honestly think the grid will be really bloody tight for next year, so luck will be a big factor.
  + 0
  
  Jan 31 2019 - 09:11