Antonio Giovinazzi to race Sauber as fitness issues stop Wehrlein

By Adam Cooper
Published

Italian rookie Antonio Giovinazzi will stand in for Pascal Wehrlein for the rest of the weekend after the German admitted he didn’t feel fit enough to do a race distance.

Ferrari’s third driver Giovinazzi will thus get a chance to make his F1 debut after testing for the Swiss team in Barcelona.

Ferrari protégés Giovinazzi and Charles Leclerc have both been linked with FP1 running for Sauber and Haas, with the Sauber reserve role obviously of interest to the latter given the potential problems for Wehrlein.

Pascal Wehrlein stressed that his withdrawal was purely due to concerns over his fitness, and that there are no issues with his back injury, sustained in the Race of Champions in January.

Although he had been approved to compete this weekend by the FIA, it was while doing long runs in Friday practice that Wehrlein realized that his preparation had been badly compromised, and that he would struggle to perform at his best over the race.

He told the Sauber team in the post FP2 briefing, Ferrari agreed that Giovinazzi could drive, although the FIA paperwork for the Italian was only completed at 3 a.m. Australian time.

“I just feel like I can’t do the whole race at my best performance, that’s what I told the team yesterday,” said Wehrlein. “So we decided together that it would be best to skip this race, to not take any risks, and to be back then in China.”

Wehrlein admitted that his training had been badly disrupted by his recovery.

“The injury happened I think nine weeks ago, and that was the time where you just have to prepare as good as you can for the season. It took me a step backwards, of course, the injury, and now I’m just catching up. I felt like everything was OK, but just not for the whole race distance.

“You never drive under race circumstances, and yesterday in the car in the long run you feel it more than in testing or in shorter runs. I just told the team yesterday in the meeting that I can’t do the whole race at my best performance.”