Antonio Giovinazzi reckons greater preparation will enable him to have a smoother weekend with Sauber in China, compared to his late call-up to race in Australia.
Giovinazzi, Ferrari’s reserve driver, was drafted in after Friday practice in Australia to replace Pascal Wehrlein, who deemed himself insufficiently fit, as a consequence of his Race of Champions crash.
Giovinazzi, who had previously sampled the C36-Ferrari during pre-season testing, had only the third practice session to get up to speed at Albert Park and subsequently qualified in 16th before going on to classify in 12th position in the race.
The Italian believes greater warning of his participation at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix will be of assistance.
“It was a fantastic experience, quite a late call on Saturday morning but I enjoyed everything I did from FP3 to qualifying to the race,” he said, reflecting on Melbourne.
“To be here now ready to start from FP1 [and] already with experience from Melbourne will make it a lot more easy.
“It’s a different race weekend, the weather looks difficult, maybe it will be wet, [so] to have also experience in the wet would be good.
“What I can do is my best and hopefully the result will be good like in Melbourne.”
Giovinazzi also confirmed that his presence with Sauber is unknown beyond the end of the current race weekend.
“I’m the third driver of Ferrari, now we just think race by race,” he said.
“I had a call early on Tuesday and I am here to race for Sauber, already from next week I will be back in red with Ferrari then we will see in the future.”
