Giovinazzi: “Le Mans kills you mentally, there is never rest”

Last year he was one of the heroes who brought Ferrari back to victory in the overall classification of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Inevitably, therefore, the Circuit de la Sarthe will always have a special place in the heart of Antonio Giovinazzi, who with that success crowned a dream he had carried within him since he was a child – imposing himself with a red tracksuit on – and also partly avenged a perhaps a too early conclusion for his F1 career.

The pole position of the 2024 edition was mainly contested by the LMDhs, with the Porsche which ultimately won out over the Cadillac thanks to Kevin Estre, but the 499Ps put themselves in the right position to try to do another protagonist race: the #51, which the driver from Puglia shares with his compatriot Alessandro Pier Guidi and with James Calado, will in fact start from the third spot on the grid, with the #50 of Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen at his side. When you have the Cavallino logo on your chest, there can only be one goal and, even if it won’t be simple, “Giovi” dreams of being able to do an encore in 2023.

Is a victory like last year something that changes your life?
“To be honest, I came from Formula 1, which is the best moment of your career, but winning Le Mans with Ferrari was special. Since I was a child, my dream was to win a big race with Ferrari, with the Red suit. It was the achievement of a dream, because then everyone knows how important Le Mans is and how important it is to win it with Ferrari. I remember that immediately after the race I went to Canada for my reserve duties in F1 and everyone was congratulating me. Maybe it didn’t change my life much, but it meant a lot to myself.”

Your F1 career perhaps ended too soon: was winning Le Mans a bit of revenge?
“It was also a way to demonstrate what I am capable of doing, because in F1 we ​​know that it is essential to have a good car at the right time, because there are only 20 drivers and they are all at the top. I did three years in F1 and It was a great experience, from which I learned a lot. I repeat, one of my dreams as a child was to be an F1 driver, but the biggest one was to win with Ferrari, I grew up seeing Red everywhere. One of my idols was Michael Schumacher. I didn’t expect to win the overall at Le Mans, because Ferrari hadn’t raced in the main class for years, but we did it and it was beautiful.”

Is a race like the 24 Hours of Le Mans more difficult to manage physically or mentally?
“It’s a race that destroys you, but mentally, not physically. The track isn’t physically demanding, because there are so many straights, but it kills you mentally, because you don’t sleep and you always have to be concentrated. There’s always traffic, so the your mind never has rest. In the end you need a total rest of 3-4 days, even if last year I remember that I enjoyed it a lot, so I hope to repeat it again, because it was one of the best sensations of my life. life”.

Can it in any way be compared to the Singapore GP, which is perhaps the most challenging F1 race?
“It’s completely different. First of all, because that’s not a 24-hour race. Then we’ve been here since last Friday, so the 24 Hours lasts more than a week. It’s true that the race will only start tomorrow, but in the middle there were events, meetings, we drove during the day, we drove at night, we do all these things to aim for a great result, but we start in a good position, so we have to try not to make mistakes to stay on our target in all conditions and then see where we will be in the final hour.”

This is your second full season with 499P, do you think you’ve grown compared to a year and a half ago?
“If I think back to the first race last year, I’m in better shape. For me it was a new car, new tyres, a different type of racing. Everything was new and so I have to say thanks to my teammates, because also for the car was new, but they already had experience in this championship and knew what it takes to win. I was lucky to be able to learn from them and now I think I have improved in every aspect, even if there is always room to grow in every aspect. race. And that’s what we must continue to do as a team too, because we have a still young car, from which we can still extract potential before reaching 100%.”

If you had to make a prediction now, who do you see as contenders to win?
“The Porsche seems very strong to me, but also the Cadillac and obviously the Toyota too. In qualifying the BMW was ahead of everyone. I think it will be a good race and that after a few hours we will be able to understand what the real values ​​are, although for the moment it’s nice to see so many manufacturers close together. Last year was a great race to watch, and not just because we won, so let’s hope it can be the same this time too.”

For Sunday the forecast speaks of a possible arrival of rain…
“If it rains you have to have a good car, but the driver also has to put a lot of effort into it, especially on this track and perhaps if it were to happen at night. At Le Mans you never know if and when it will rain. But, as I said, the most important thing will be not to make mistakes and try to be consistent in all conditions.”