Antonio Giovinazzi believes Ferrari can finest hope to “survive” in Sunday’s World Endurance Championship race at Fuji after a tricky qualifying for the 2 manufacturing facility crews.
Giovinazzi struggled to twelfth within the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar within the opening phase of qualifying on Saturday, lapping nearly seven tenths off the tempo set by Alex Lynn within the #2 Cadillac V-Sequence.R.
The sister #50 Ferrari pushed by Antonio Fuoco did progress to Hyperpole, however the 28-year-old by no means featured within the battle for pole place both, ending up a distant seventh on the grid.
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Ferrari had a troublesome outing at Fuji Speedway in its debut season final 12 months with each its vehicles ending a lap down on the successful Toyota, and Giovinazzi fears that the Italian marque is ready for an additional irritating consequence on its return to the 4.5km circuit.
Requested to clarify Ferrari’s poor exhibiting in qualifying, Giovinazzi advised Motorsport.com: “Simply no tempo. I did the utmost I might do however the automobile was troublesome to drive right this moment in quali. We do not begin from a [good] grid place nevertheless it’s a protracted race so let’s have a look at what we are able to do tomorrow.
“It was not the tempo which we had in Austin and which was higher. For some motive final 12 months, we struggled right here and identical this 12 months. So it is not our observe.”
He added: “We’ve many vehicles which can be higher than us – BMW, Alpine, in fact Toyota and Porsche – so will probably be a troublesome race tomorrow. Let’s survive and see the place we are going to end.”
The #50 Ferrari shared by Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen is contending for the championship, with the trio trailing the #6 Porsche 963 of Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer by 12 factors with two races to run.
#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen
Picture by: Andreas Beil
Estre certified the #6 Porsche in fifth place, whereas the #7 Toyota crew that’s stage on factors with the #50 Ferrari ended up fourth within the palms of Kamui Kobayashi.
Fuoco mentioned that Ferrari’s purpose ought to be to take the battle to its closest title rivals to place itself in the very best place for the Bahrain season finale in November.
“As all the time we’re right here to attempt to do the utmost, and tomorrow we attempt to struggle,” he mentioned. “Fortunately the opponents which can struggle for the championship are simply in entrance of us and we [will] attempt to struggle with them if we now have the possibility.”
Requested what can be an excellent consequence for Ferrari on Sunday, Fuoco mentioned: “Surviving. Attempt to end within the high 5.”
Pressed additional on whether or not that was lifelike, he added: “Not likely however all the time we attempt to make it work.”
Extra reporting by Gary Watkins
