Antonio Giovinazzi: From GP2 Runner-Up to Le Mans Winner and Ferrari Endurance Driver

Antonio Giovinazzi is an Italian racing driver who competed in Formula One from 2017 to 2021 before finding his best-known success in endurance racing. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023 with Ferrari, and that victory came 50 years after the marque's last top-class entry at the race in 1973.

Who is Antonio Giovinazzi?

Antonio Giovinazzi is an Italian racing driver born in Martina Franca on 14 December 1993. He raced in Formula One from 2017 to 2021 and has since become a factory endurance driver for Ferrari, while also serving as a Ferrari reserve driver.

His childhood was spent in karting, which he began in 2000. He won the Italian National Trophy 60cc and the Euro Trophy 60 titles in 2006, and he took the WSK Master Series KF2 class in both 2010 and 2011. He has one child, a daughter.

His single-seater career started in 2012 with Formula Pilota China. He won six races in his debut season and took the championship. That year he also made a guest appearance for the BVM team at Monza in Formula Abarth, where he won two races but could not score points because he was a guest driver.

It was his first victory as a factory Ferrari driver, and it came 50 years after Ferrari's last top-class entry at the race in 1973.

How did he rise through the junior formulae?

Giovinazzi moved into single-seaters in 2012 and reached the British Formula 3 series in 2013, where he finished runner-up to Jordan King. He then joined the FIA Formula 3 European Championship and won the Masters of Formula 3 in 2015.

In 2013 he also debuted in the European championship with Double R Racing. He scored his first points at Brands Hatch and finished 15th in the standings with 45 points. In 2014 he moved to Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, won two races and finished sixth with 238 points. His first Formula 3 podium arrived with second place at Hockenheim, and his first win came from pole at the Red Bull Ring.

In 2015 he was a title contender for much of the season, but Felix Rosenqvist pulled ahead and Giovinazzi finished runner-up on 412.5 points. He recorded six wins, twenty podiums and four pole positions that year. At the Macau Grand Prix he qualified fourth and won the qualifying race, but a 20-second penalty for an incident at the start dropped him to tenth, and he recovered to fourth in the main event.

How did his GP2 season end?

Giovinazzi joined Prema Powerteam for the 2016 GP2 Series, alongside Pierre Gasly, a Red Bull junior. A poor opening, which included points-less rounds and lost reverse-grid pole, was followed by a strong run. He won both the feature and sprint races at Baku, the first driver to take that double since Davide Valsecchi in 2012.

He took pole at Spa, where Gasly took the feature race, and at Monza he started from the front before a technical infringement cost him the session. Even so, he won the Monza feature race after a safety-car incident worked in his favour. At Sepang he passed Sergey Sirotkin late in the race to claim his fifth win of the year and the championship lead.

Gasly then won the Abu Dhabi feature race and went into the final round twelve points ahead. Giovinazzi finished ahead of him on Sunday, but a poor start meant he could not close the gap, and Gasly took the title by eight points.

A title would have made him the first rookie champion since Nico Hulkenberg, who took the crown in 2009. It would also have crowned the last GP2 champion, since the series was then succeeded by the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2017.

What was his Formula One career like?

Giovinazzi made his Formula One debut for Sauber at the 2017 Australian Grand Prix, replacing the injured Pascal Wehrlein. He moved to Alfa Romeo for 2019 and stayed with the team until the end of 2021, when he was dropped and became a Ferrari reserve.

Before his debut he had been a reserve for Sauber, Ferrari and Haas in 2017, taking part in seven practice sessions for Haas that season. He then did six practice sessions for Sauber in 2018. He finished 12th on his debut, and he was the first Italian in a Formula One starting grid since Jarno Trulli and Vitantonio Liuzzi lined up at the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix.

The 2017 Chinese Grand Prix, where Sauber again asked him to replace Wehrlein, ended in a crash during both qualifying and the race.

How did he score his first points and his best finish?

His first points came at the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix, where he finished tenth after eight races without scoring. His career-best result was sixth at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix, and he was promoted to fifth when Lewis Hamilton received a penalty.

That first points finish was the first by an Italian driver since Vitantonio Liuzzi took sixth at the 2010 Korean Grand Prix. A week after the Belgian Grand Prix he scored again, finishing ninth at the Italian Grand Prix, his first home race in Formula One.

During the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix he ran at the front for four laps once the leaders had made their stops, the first time he had led a Grand Prix. The lead came from lap 27. For Alfa Romeo it was the first lead since Andrea de Cesaris in the 1983 Belgian Grand Prix. He finished tenth at Singapore and finished the season 17th with 14 points.

Kimi Raikkonen was his team-mate at Alfa Romeo in 2019, after Marcus Ericsson moved into a reserve role. Midway through that season Giovinazzi had collected a single point while his team-mate had scored 31. In Belgium he crashed out on the last lap while running ninth, and the team began to weigh up his future with it.

How did the 2020 and 2021 seasons go at Alfa Romeo?

In 2020 Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen were both retained. He started 18th in Austria but finished ninth after nine other cars retired. His car struck George Russell's Williams in Belgium after a loss of control, and both retired from that race. He also scored tenth-place finishes at the Eifel and Emilia Romagna Grands Prix.

At the Turkish Grand Prix he reached the third qualifying session for the first time since 2019, qualifying tenth before retiring with gearbox problems. He finished 2020 17th on four points, and he outqualified Raikkonen at nine of the season's seventeen races.

The 2021 Monaco round brought him tenth on the grid, his first trip into the third qualifying session that year, and another tenth-place finish that gave Alfa Romeo its opening point of the season. He followed that with eleventh in Azerbaijan. The Alfa Romeo chapter closed at season's end, and he became a Ferrari reserve, sharing the role with Mick Schumacher.

Before reaching Formula One he had already shown promise in touring cars. In a 2015 DTM test, Audi Sport Team Phoenix took note of him, and he was then drafted in to replace the suspended Timo Scheider at Moscow Raceway. He finished 19th and 21st in the two races.

Formula E, testing and reserve duties

Giovinazzi moved to Formula E for 2021-22, driving for Dragon Penske Autosport alongside Sergio Sette Camara. A thumb injury from contact with Alexander Sims ruled him out of the Seoul finale. He ended the championship 23rd, scoring nothing, and was the only full-time entrant who failed to earn a point.

That year he worked as a Haas test driver, running in practice sessions for the Italian round and the American round. In the American session he ran four laps before crashing and could not continue. Later that year he joined an Alpine test at the Hungaroring, alongside Nyck de Vries and Jack Doohan.

He kept his Ferrari reserve roles for 2023 while racing in the World Endurance Championship, and he remained a reserve for 2024 and 2025. A test in late January 2025 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya gave him time in the Ferrari SF-23.

How did he win the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours?

Giovinazzi won the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans in the No. 51 Ferrari 499P, alongside James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi. It was his first victory as a factory Ferrari driver, and it marked half a century since the marque had last taken a top-class place there, in 1973.

The 499P was Ferrari's Hypercar entry in its inaugural season. The sister No. 50 car was crewed by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen. The line-ups were confirmed in January 2023, shortly before the season opened.

He kept the same seat for 2024, but the No. 51 crew finished eighth in the championship with 59 points. Their best result that year was third place at Le Mans.

In July 2025 he agreed a multi-year contract to stay with Ferrari AF Corse, covering 2026 and the seasons after. That same year he won the FIA World Endurance Championship with the team.

Early sportscar results

In 2016 he competed in the Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 class with Sean Gelael, and the pair took victories at Buriram and Sepang. Later that season they joined SMP Racing for the Silverstone round of the European series and came home fifth.

In the FIA World Endurance Championship that year he drove for Extreme Speed Motorsports at the 6 Hours of Fuji, finishing fourth in LMP2, and then took second in LMP2 at Shanghai alongside Tom Blomqvist. In 2018 he raced a Ferrari 488 GTE for AF Corse at Le Mans, finishing fifth in LMGTE Pro and 20th overall.

How the Ferrari link began

Giovinazzi's association with Ferrari started away from the track. On 5 September 2016 it was announced that he would carry out simulator work for Scuderia Ferrari, and in December that year he was confirmed as Ferrari's reserve driver.

That reserve role ran alongside his Formula One commitments with Sauber and Haas in 2017 and 2018. Sauber used him in six practice sessions across 2018, and the Ferrari reserve position continued to be his main link to the team.

The association led naturally to the endurance programme. Ferrari entered the 499P Hypercar in the World Endurance Championship from 2023, and Giovinazzi was placed in one of its two cars.

Career milestones at a glance