Vasseur not blaming Giovinazzi for Turkish GP F1 points loss

 Giovinazzi was instructed to allow his teammate Kimi Raikkonen past him in the closing stages of the race at Istanbul Park, but the Italian disobeyed Alfa Romeo’s call and remained ahead on track. 

Raikkonen felt he had the pace to catch and pass Esteban Ocon’s Alpine to score the final point in 10th had he been allowed through. Giovinazzi ultimately went on to finish 0.8s behind Ocon as Alfa Romeo missed a rare chance to get points. 

But speaking on Friday at the United States Grand Prix, Vasseur refused to pin the blame on Giovinazzi. 

“Turkey was a tough race for the strategists and for the drivers to know exactly what is the right level of push you have to do,” he explained. 

"We were trying to save the tyres and making a huge saving in turn eight. At one stage Kimi pushed much more, and we thought that we were able to keep the tyres, and we asked Antonio either to push or to let him go. 

“He was probably too conservative, but I don’t want to blame him. But we had the discussion.

“He was a bit lost with the quantity of the attack he has to do, that for sure he could be much faster. And he was too conservative.

“We lost the points, clearly, but I don’t want to blame Antonio that we had the discussion. 

“I think he was sticking to the plan and when we had the window to push more, he took two or three laps to understand that he could push more. It is like it is.”

Ahead of the weekend in Austin, Giovinazzi admitted it is “not easy” to race with his F1 future remaining uncertain amid rumours he could be about to lose his seat for next season. 

Alfa Romeo has not yet decided who will partner Valtteri Bottas in 2022 but Vasseur has stressed the Swiss-based outfit is in no rush to finalise its driver line-up. 

“We have a couple of options and we will take a decision soon,” Vasseur said.