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Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, Russia

Alfa Romeo radio silence created "impossible" Russian "mess"

Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, Russia — Photo: © LAT Images

Alfa Romeo radio silence created "impossible" Russian "mess"

Giovinazzi had no communication as conditions turned

Antonio Giovinazzi has described how a lack of radio communication with his Alfa Romeo team left him stranded as rain chaos hit the Russian Grand Prix.

Giovinazzi started 17th at Sochi and after making a good getaway from the line then made contact at turn two with Haas driver Mick Schumacher, losing the positions he had gained.

Heavy rainfall scuppered race strategies late on, with Lando Norris, Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez all impacted, yet Giovinazzi was faced with an even more difficult situation without any communication with the team.

"I had no radio from lap one so it was impossible to communicate with the team so it was just a difficult race with the fuel-saving," explained Giovinazzi.

"I tried to watch my pit on the main straight to watch what I needed to do but without radio, it was just a mess."

Expanding on the issues, Alfa Romeo head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar revealed there was complete radio silence throughout the race.

Asked how much the issue affected Giovinazzi, Pujolar replied: "Quite a bit because it was a tricky race with the fuel management and then especially towards the end of the race with the weather and all that.

"Initially, he could hear us but we could not hear him, but after a few laps, we lost everything.

"It was getting a bit difficult with what we wanted to achieve and affected his performance."

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