Antonio Giovinazzi set to drop to back of grid after gearbox change

Sauber’s Antonio Giovinazzi is set to drop to the back of the grid at the Chinese GP after the team was forced to change his gearbox.

The FIA has yet to confirm either the penalty or the new grid, but Giovinazzi is expected to move from his current position of 15th to 20th.

The Italian crashed heavily at the end of Q1, and the team had no choice but to fit a new gearbox, although it was able to keep his race chassis.

“It was all good until the last corner of my final lap,” he said. “I was already in Q2 and improving my lap time, but I pushed a bit too much, touched the grass in the exit of the last corner and then lost the rear of the car. I apologize to the team for what happened.”

He will thus gift places to Stoffel Vandoorne, Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon, Romain Grosjean and Jolyon Palmer. The last two have already taken five place penalties themselves, after failing to slow sufficiently for yellow flags when Giovinazzi crashed.

Drivers with little to lose still take the option of starting from the pit lane with a changed setup.

However, the indications are that the track will be drying as the race approaches, so there is unlikely to be a benefit from moving towards a wet setup.