Antonio Giovinazzi says trying to emulate Charles Leclerc’s achievements with Sauber would be the wrong approach to take when he steps up to Formula 1 full time in 2019.
Giovinazzi will join the Formula 1 grid having spent the last two years carrying out simulator work, test days and practice runs for Ferrari, Haas and Sauber.
He also participated in the opening two races of 2017 for the Swiss team as a late replacement for Pascal Wehrlein.
Giovinazzi is replacing Ferrari-bound Leclerc at Sauber, with the Monegasque stepping up to the Maranello outfit after an eye-catching rookie campaign.
Leclerc secured points at 10 Grands Prix to finish the year with a tally of 39, his rise coinciding with Sauber’s ascent through the midfield after a difficult few seasons.
But Giovinazzi believes trying to mirror his Ferrari colleague’s tenure would be the wrong approach.
“To be honest I didn’t speak much with him about this jump,” Giovinazzi said of Leclerc.
“I want to think about myself and don’t repeat maybe the result of what Charles did this year or [to try and] improve his result.
“So my target is just to do the best from my side and see.
“I will also have a different team-mate from Charles, so everything will look different.
“I hope the car will be faster from Race 1 [compared to 2018] and we can start to push already from Melbourne.
“It will be quite tough for the first races, because beside me is a World Champion with a lot of years in F1.
“From my side I need to do just my job and improve myself race by race and then we’ll see at the end of the year if we did a good job or not.”
Sauber was one of Formula 1’s most improved teams through 2018 and Giovinazzi sees no reason why that trend cannot be maintained into next year.
“I think they showed [they were] the best team from race one to the last race, were fighting for second last position to last position in Melbourne and [finished] P8 on the Constructors’ Championship,” said the 25-year-old.
“They are doing a fantastic job, Charles and Marcus [Ericsson] did fantastic, I see a lot of high motivation on the team from mechanics and engineers for next year as well.
“So this is looking good for me for next year, so we will try and improve also the result again.
“The target for sure is to be best of the rest but it’s a really high target.”
