Alpine wanted to recruit Giovinazzi in 2022, assures Szafnauer

“What ifs?” in Formula 1, there are plenty of them over the 75 years of the championship's existence. Aborted transfers, discussions without follow-up, pre-contracts signed but never respected: there is no shortage of stories like these in the discipline, and Otmar Szafnauer has just given us a new one. The Romanian-American was, between February 2022 and July 2023, the team principal of the team AlpineDuring his (short-lived) experience with the French team, the 60-year-old manager had a rather tumultuous history with the arrowed A, and he never misses an opportunity to say it.

Giovinazzi was considered by Alpine before Gasly's arrival

In the last episode of the podcast “The Team Principal Podcast” Hosted by our colleagues at The Race, Otmar Szafnauer discussed the times in his career when he had to deal with internal politics within the team and the group. Renault at the time he worked at AlpineThe former Team Principal of the French team returned in particular to the episode of the transfer of Pierre Gasly, recruited by the A fléché in the fall of 2022 to play the 2023 season. Alpine had managed to secure the services of the French pilot thanks to an agreement with the clan Red Bull, in order to replace Fernando Alonso, leaving for Aston Martin.

"Nyck De Vries had performed very well [at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix] and Helmut [Marko] wanted to give him a chance. And we got Pierre [Gasly] back. But you can imagine I was under all kinds of pressure about who to take, he explained regarding the choice of Fernando Alonso's replacementI really wanted someone who had a lot of Formula 1 experience, who had a proven track record and who was fast, and Pierre proved he had all those qualities." Otmar Szafnauer then confided that Renault had its sights set on another driver on the grid at the time… "[Antonio] Giovinazzi was part of [the list], for example. I remember that Giovinazzi was wanted by AlpineHe was in the know at the time.

At the time, Antonio Giovinazzi was without a drive in F1 after the end of his adventure with Alfa Romeo Sauber. In September 2022, The Italian had been tested by the arrowed A during a private test in Hungary, along with Jack Doohan, Colton Herta and Nyck de Vries. This was quite surprising information at the time, but Alpine had never confirmed his interest in the Martina Franca native, who scored 21 points in 62 Grand Prix starts. Since then, Antonio Giovinazzi has converted toEndurance and disputes the WEC with Ferrari since 2023, including a victory in the 24H of Le Mans 2023. He nevertheless remains linked to F1 as the Scuderia's reserve driver again this season.

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