Giovinazzi overcomes illness for highest Barcelona test mileage

Antonio Giovinazzi was unwell at the start of the second day of in-season testing in Barcelona, but recovered to complete the highest mileage for Ferrari.

The Italian had completed over 130 laps for Sauber on Tuesday and then switched to drive for Ferrari on the final day, taking over from Sebastian Vettel and setting the second-fastest time. However, Giovinazzi’s day didn’t get off to the smoothest start, as he admitted: “I was a little bit sick, but in the end it was OK, so I kept running until the end.”

More Formula 1

RAVENOL team brings Mercedes-AMG its first 24h Nürburgring victory in 10 years

Mechanical issues knock Verstappen team out of 24h Nürburgring lead

Verstappen off to fast start in 24h Nürburgring

Having been limited to test outings so far this year, Giovinazzi – who started two races for Sauber at the start of 2017 – says it was important for him to get some serious mileage under his belt after having not made an FP1 appearance since last year.

“Yeah, it was a really tough day, a lot of laps," he said. "I really enjoyed it. We tried so many things, a different set of tires. In the end 145 laps. Really happy with this, also because for a long time I was not in the car, so to come back like that, yesterday 137, today 145. It was a good comeback from my side.

“The last time was in Abu Dhabi FP1, and FP1 you can only do 10 laps. This was a proper test and I really enjoyed the day. I think we got a lot of data and it’s really good also to compare the data that we have in the simulator. It was a really positive day and thanks to the team because we did a really good test.”

As the only driver this week to spend time in two different cars, Giovinazzi insists there was no accurate way of comparing the Ferrari and Sauber.

“Of course it’s a different car. We test also different things, so in the end there’s not a way to compare the two cars. But like I say, I really enjoyed the two days of testing. We did different work at Sauber yesterday and today at Ferrari. In the end, 137 and 145 laps, this was important to finish the program, to give all the data to the team, yesterday to Sauber, today to Ferrari. This was my main thing.”