Giovinazzi ignored the order in Turkey and the team stood points

The Alfa Romeo team left Istanbul Park, where the Formula 1 race for the Turkish Grand Prix took place, empty-handed for the twelfth time this year. But the Swiss team could have scored new points if their racer Antonio Giovinazzi had not ignored the team’s instructions.

The Italian finished less than a second behind Esteban Ocon, the last racer to score points, losing a lot of time due to heavily worn tires. The Alpine F1 driver did not change his tires during the race.

But a few laps before the end of the race, Alfa Romeo ordered Giovinazzi to drop teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who was significantly faster, until he caught up with Giovinazzi, whom he did not want to overtake by force due to unforeseen conditions. The Finn, who drove three laps ahead of Giovinazzi at the stop and at times drove even faster than winner Valtteri Bottas, would have a better chance of overtaking the slow-moving Ocon, given his pace. The 2007 season champion also drove two seconds faster per lap than Giovinazzi, and Italian racing engineer Jorn Becker told his protégé that he should drive lap times of at least 1: 33.5 and that he loses a lot on cornering brakes.

Raikkonen set a time of 50: 1 in the 32.5th lap and was 2.8 seconds faster than his teammate before him, so Alfa Romeo called on the racer to change places. “Swap places after the first corner, it’s much faster now,” Becker told Antonio, who disobeyed the order but replied he would drive faster. He did so, but drove “only” 1: 33.1, while Raikkonen waited for a teammate to obey the team’s command.

In lap 55, the Alfa racers overtook Daniel Ricciardo, and they started the final lap five seconds behind Ocon, who was almost caught by Giovinazzi, but had a few meters to overtake him before the finish. Raikkonen stayed behind his teammate and then drove off the track and dropped Max Verstappn in front of him, who overtook him by a lap. Raikkonen's racing engineer, Julian Simon Chautemps, told Finc that Ocon was in tenth place ahead of Giovinazzi, and Raikkonen replied: "Maybe we should think about it a little earlier, because we could catch him."