Alfa Romeo team boss Frederic Vasseur has revealed that the a mistake during the installation of Antonio Giovinazzi’s engine cost the Italian vital track time in China.
Giovinazzi managed just two laps in the opening practice session on Friday before he was confined to his garage.
According to reports the issue related to a loss of power, the result of his engine being incorrectly installed.
Vasseur has confirmed this.
“We had an issue on the installation of the engine, and we had to pull away the engine,” he told Autosport.
“It was too long to do it during the FP1.
“It’s a shame because it was a mistake and he missed the first FP1. It’s so tight, so it’s difficult to recover.”
The good news for Giovinazzi is that the mistake did not damage the engine; the bad news is that he lost an entire session of practice time.
“We couldn’t run it like this and we had to stop,” Vasseur added.
“It’s frustrating for everybody because from the beginning of the year he showed that the pace is there, that he was very fast in Melbourne in Q1, did a better lap time than Kimi’s overall or was more or less the same.
“He did the race in Bahrain, the pace was there; in quali, did a small mistake at the end of the lap but was a bit faster than Kimi.
“He’s trying to put everything together and the team didn’t help him today honestly, but it’s not at all with Antonio.”
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