With four races to go before the end of the season, there are still a few free seats on the 2020 grid. One of these is at Alfa Romeo, alongside Kimi Räikkönen; although some rumours circulated at Monza gave the official confirmation of Antonio Giovinazzi, the final decision on his fate has not yet been taken.

However, during the weekend of the Japanese GP, team principal Frédéric Vasseur praised the growth of the Italian driver in the latest race weekends:

“I think Antonio is doing a great job, in the last six or seven qualifying sessions he managed to be at the level of Kimi. He is improving and I have a lot of confidence in him”.

In fact, despite the heavy 31-4 deficit in the points, Giovinazzi managed to stay ahead of the Finnish driver in the last three qualifying sessions, and after the summer break he returned twice to the top 10, while Räikkönen does not score points from Hungary.

Antonio also had the honour of being the first driver since 1983 to finish a lap in the lead with Alfa Romeo, during the Singapore GP, right in the middle of the most heated period of the drivers’ market.

His real drawback was the lack of outstanding results: in fact, he has not yet managed to go beyond the ninth place in the race, while Räikkönen finished three times seventh.

His resigning to the team would mean yet another closed door for Nico Hulkenberg, at the moment still without a seat for 2020 after losing the one in Renault in favor of Esteban Ocon.

The options for the German diminish more and more. In addition to the team of Hinwil only Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Williams have not yet formalised their line-up for next season.