Marchionne: Giovinazzi 'has the potential' to be a Ferrari F1 driver - MotorSportsTalk

Ferrari chairman and CEO Sergio Marchionne believes that junior driver Antonio Giovinazzi “has the potential” to drive for the Scuderia in Formula 1 one day, but remained coy about putting him in a seat in the near future.

Giovinazzi secured a third driver role with Ferrari for 2017 after finishing second in last year’s GP2 Series, and was subbed in to replace the injured Pascal Wehrlein at Sauber for the opening two rounds of the season.

The Italian put in an impressive display over the Australian Grand Prix weekend on debut, almost reaching Q2, but suffered a crash in qualifying in China.

Along with congratulating lead Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel on his victory in Australia two weeks ago, Marchionne also paid tribute to Giovinazzi in his statement after the race for his debut display.

With Kimi Raikkonen due to be out of contract at the end of the year, Giovinazzi has been linked as a possible outsider for a Ferrari F1 seat in 2018, with the Italian marque having a history for hiring home-grown drivers.

Speaking to reporters ahead of Sunday’s race in China, Marchionne said he didn’t think Giovinazzi would be ready for a seat with Ferrari in 2018, but thinks he has what it takes to race for the team in the future.

“I don’t know about that,” Marchionne said when asked if Giovinazzi would be ready for a Ferrari seat next year.

“I think he certainly has the potential to be a Ferrari driver. Not withstanding what happened yesterday [in qualifying], he’s a great driver.

“He’s got great instincts. We need to see him develop.”

Giovinazzi suffered another crash during Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, marking a disappointing end to his second weekend in F1.

“I want to apologize again to the team,” Giovinazzi said. “They did a great job to get the car ready for the race. It was a shame that I crashed again today.

“A learning lesson – I just want to forget this weekend quickly.”

While Giovinazzi has not yet been confirmed as replacing Wehrlein for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, it is thought unlikely that the German will have regained full fitness in time for the race, making a third start likely for the Ferrari youngster.

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Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

Marchionne: Giovinazzi ‘has the potential’ to be a Ferrari F1 driver

Hunter Lawrence defends Haiden Deegan after controversial block pass at Detroit

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