Ferrari, interview Fuoco Giovinazzi: Le Mans and Wec 2024

For once no Charles & Carlos. For a day Antonio & Antonio. There Ferrari which won this year: the new and beautiful one 499P hypercar, triumphant at Le Mans in the centenary edition, fifty years after the last time the red car raced there. From there, from the La Sarthe circuit, we start to talk about 2023 and we will return to imagine ourselves in 2024. With Antonio Giovinazzi And Antonio Fuoco, representing the team in general and in particular car 50 and 51. And no, there is no “Antò War”, despite the collisions between their two cars in the last race of the season in Bahrain. The title of Silvia Ballestra’s book (and film) is useless, because, they both say: “We feel much more like teammates than rivals on the track”.

The most surprising thing about the season?

Giovinazzi: “Le Mans. But not just because we won. Because it was our first 24 Hours over. We had done a lot of tests before, trying to simulate what would await us in the race, and every time we had problems. Thanks to all those tests we solved many problems. So the main goal was to get to the end. Instead we managed to give our best at the right time.”

Fire: “The season in general. Being a new team, and immediately competing with Toyota, Cadillac and Porsche was not a given. We did an excellent job.”

Considering that Toyota has unparalleled experience and an advantage, can it be said that Ferrari has won its championship?

Giovinazzi: “Yes, because it was against the teams that had recently entered, namely Porsche and Cadillac. And we beat them.”

You are both from the south: was it harder to emerge? And how much pride is there in having done it?

Giovinazzi: “And having made it with Ferrari, I might add. Ferrari is always the dream of all Italian kids, in the south and in the north. It’s true that the sacrifices are different starting from karting. Because practically all the circuits are in the north. I can also speak for Fuoco, because we were both in the Monopoli Goffredo Kart team. And at a certain point we moved, still together, to Reggio Emilia, to Top Kart. But it was hard just to take the train every time to get to Reggio, do the race and then go back to Puglia and Calabria at absurd times and go to school the next morning. What brought us to where we are was the hunger to want to make it. We got where we wanted. And it is proof that when you want something, wherever you are, in the south or anywhere else, with sacrifice and work you can do it.”

Fire: “He said it all. It was lucky to grow up together. And yes, as children we made many sacrifices, with days and days away from home, in a van up and down Italy, abroad. Sacrifices for us and for our families. And I am very pleased to have found Antonio here, it is something unique if we think back to our entire common history.”

It is right to underline the role of your families in all this…

Giovinazzi: “They played a fundamental role. Because beyond the sacrifices, we must be grateful for the trust they gave us knowing we were around for weeks, perhaps with people we didn’t even know that well. Accepting it, especially for a mother, is not exactly easy. If we are here it is also thanks to them.”

While the beginning of everything is usually the father’s passion…

Fire: “Obviously. I had a kart track 300 meters from home, Giovi won the Italian championship there in….”

Giovinazzi: “…in 2006”

Fire: “With my father and my brother we spent practically every Sunday there. And it all began, first in Calabria, then in Puglia.”

What is your first flash, as a child, linked to the little horse you carry on your chest?

Fire: “The Ferrari sticker I always had on my kart. As a child you dreamed of becoming a Ferrari F1 driver. When you become a driver, you dream of arriving at Ferrari, even in a hypercar. Where we have arrived.”

Giovinazzi: “There is a photo of me in which I am in a little red car, I wasn’t even walking. And in all my baby photos I always have a red t-shirt or hat. Or both. Also because those were the years in which Ferrari won with Michael Schumacher. I started watching it on TV so young that I don’t even have a clear image. Not even when I decided I would be a pilot. Without realizing it it all became almost like an obsession. Everything I did I did to be where I am now. It’s a beautiful thing to say. So beautiful that I hope it can be an encouragement, in any field, for kids. An invitation not to be told no. You just have to hope to have positive people around you, as I was lucky enough to have. As a child I told my dad: ‘I’ll become a Ferrari driver’, and he replied ‘It will be hard, but we’ll try’. Then of course, I did my best: on Saturday evenings I went to bed early, because the next day we went to Conca, which is an hour and a half from home, or to Muro Leccese”.

What is your first common memory?

Giovinazzi: “We have never competed, due to the age difference. But when I finished with the Mini-Kart and had to leave Goffredo Kart, the team manager, Franco Goffredo, asked me who I recommended to him. And I said: ‘Antonio Fuoco’. Which back then was still called Speedy.”

Fire: “For my entire karting career I was just Speedy, no first and last name. I abandoned it when I went to single-seaters in 2012. And so I’m grateful to Antonio. With whom we have never been rivals on the track.”

Well, in the last race of the season, in Bahrain, we saw some nice turns between your two cars. On the 50 there was Fuoco, on the 51 there was no Giovinazzi, there was Pier Guidi…

Fire: “Our strong point was that we were six drivers all together. Actually, eight, we must add Davide Rigon and Alessio Rovera who worked with us on the development. The harmony that exists between us, not only on the track, helps us a lot. We get along very well. Then on the track we try to give our best. In Bahrain it was anomalous: I had hot tires, Ale had cold ones. We did not understand eachother. But there wasn’t even a discussion. Once we got out of the car we immediately clarified. And everything went back to normal.”

So we won’t see the “Anto War”…

Giovinazzi: “Respect is fundamental. And there it is. Then there will always be battles. The objective is to do the best possible for Ferrari.”

BMW, Lamborghini, Isotta Fraschini, Alpine with Mick Schumacher enter next: a grid with over 20 hypercars is expected. What are you thinking?

Giovinazzi: “That everyone will want to beat Ferrari. There will also be one more race, eight instead of seven. But only two categories on the track, hypercars and GT. And with so many more hypercars it will be very difficult to score points. Until last year we practically always got there.”

Fire: “With twenty or more cars the approach to the race will change. There will certainly be a new format for qualifying, with the hyper-pole. Compared to 2023 where in the end it wasn’t so important to start from the front, because with a good pace you could still get back up, next year it will definitely be: staying behind with 20 cars will become a problem. Also because for a few years now ours are no longer endurance races, they are sprints that last many hours. If we look back at Le Mans 2023 we see that already in the first 4 hours from everyone’s pace it seemed that the race was about to end. The level will rise, there will be more fight and therefore it will be increasingly beautiful for the spectators and fans too.”

The best result after Le Mans?

Giovinazzi: “The following weekend I went to Canada as an F1 reserve and I felt a lot of love, not only from the Ferrari garage but also from many others. The Red Bull mechanics and the Mercedes technicians came to compliment me.”

From the cockpit, from the track, what do you perceive of the Le Mans atmosphere?

Giovinazzi: “The podium was something surprising. Seeing that sea of ​​people on the straight and up to Turn 1 is spectacular. Maybe you think that 325 thousand people on such a long track could leave some empty space, but instead when driving it seems full everywhere. And it’s beautiful.”

Fire: “Le Mans is not just a special race. It’s a whole week with a tight schedule. When after pole we put the car ahead of all the others it was special.”

So if you were ever forced to choose World Title or victory at Le Mans for 2024, what would you choose?

Fire: “I say Le Mans”.

Giovinazzi: “And I also confirm Le Mans again, because it gave me a thrill that I would like to experience again. Then of course, any driver, especially one who drives a Ferrari, must set out to win both. It would be a magical result.”

Is a single race, at least in terms of sensations, worth more than the rest of the season and the championship itself?

Giovinazzi: “Yes, because doing 24 hours without ever making a mistake, with everything under control, with traffic, in the dark where I don’t know why but you feel like you’re going even faster, is a completely different thing. To me, doing 24 Hours at Le Mans seemed much longer than an entire season of Wec. I had already raced it in 2018 and due to adrenaline and inexperience I had managed it very badly. This year we had a perfect routine: once the stint is over we eat something, shower, sleep, another cold shower and off we go: you get back in the car without even knowing what the situation is. Alessandro (Pier Guidi, ed) and James Calado, ed) I saw them before the start and then on the podium.”

Fire: “Let’s correct the answer, come on. Let’s make a compromise: if we have to choose, we win Le Mans and the Constructors’ World Championship.”