Giovinazzi on COTA Crash: “It’s racing and sometimes these things happen”

Antonio Giovinazzi apologised to the Haas F1 Team after crashing early on during the first free practice session at the Circuit of the Americas after feeling he got caught out by the wind.

The Italian, who has sat out the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season after losing his seat at Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN at the end of last season, was participating in his second free practice session of the season in place of regular driver Kevin Magnussen in the United States, but he lost control of the VF-22 at turn six and spun into the barriers.

Giovinazzi then got stuck in the barriers and was unable to re-join the track, meaning his session was cut short and restricted to just four laps, which meant he was slowest of the twenty drivers.

“I wasn’t pushing but there were lots of gusts of wind and unfortunately I lost the rear, which got stuck in the barriers, and the session was over,” said Giovinazzi.

“It was only my second push lap in the session, my first with DRS, so apologies to the team. It’s racing and sometimes these things happen.”

“We will try to have a solid session in FP3” – Guenther Steiner

Team Principal Guenther Steiner admitted it was far from ideal to lose most of the opening session in Austin on Friday due to Giovinazzi’s crash, particularly with the second session being dedicated to Pirelli’s 2023 tyre test that restricted what they could do with the cars.

Despite this, Steiner was happy with the day as both Mick Schumacher and Magnussen finished inside the top eleven in the second session, with the former ending the day fifth overall.

Heading into Saturday’s running, Steiner hopes for a clean and solid final practice session and a strong Qualifying session in front of the team’s home fans in Texas.

“FP1 was a little bit troublesome with Antonio hitting the barriers in his first laps,” said Steiner. “We think he got caught out by some wind from the back, and then we only had one car driving out there.

“FP2 went pretty well with the new prototype tires from Pirelli – we now need to go through the data to see how they work – but I didn’t hear any big complaints about them.

“Tomorrow, we will try to have a solid session in FP3 and then get ready for qualifying.”

Mick Schumacher was an encouraging fifth fastest in second practice – Credit: LAT Images