Giovinazzi 'a rookie but not one' - Steiner

Haas team principal Gunther Steiner has described Antonio Gionvinazzi as 'a rookie but not a rookie' given his experience already gathered in Formula 1 compared to other test drivers.

Giovinazzi has secured a deal with Haas to drive in seven FP1 sessions between British Grand Prix and the end of the season and after his opening run at Silverstone, Steiner gave the Italian driver a glowing review for his performance.

The Haas boss feels his experience both for Sauber during pre-season testing plus the opening two races as stand-in for the injured Pascal Wehrlein and his tests for Ferrari have given Giovinazzi plenty of F1 mileage which enabled him to quickly get up to speed for Haas.

"He did a good job but Antonio has been in the car before, he has done races and a lot of tests," Steiner said. "He's a solid guy and he's fast. We have seen that last year in GP2. He's a good guy and he's very professional, he's very mature.

"We didn't expect anything strange with him as he's a rookie but he's not a rookie. I don't know how many days pre-season testing he did with Sauber, he did two races for them, he drove the Ferrari quite a bit so he's solid."