Antonio Giovinazzi believes Ferrari can best hope to “survive” in Sunday’s World Endurance Championship race at Fuji after a tough qualifying for the two factory crews.
Giovinazzi struggled to 12th in the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar in the opening segment of qualifying on Saturday, lapping almost seven-tenths off the pace set by Alex Lynn in the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R.
The sister #50 Ferrari driven by Antonio Fuoco did progress to Hyperpole, but the 28-year-old never featured in the battle for pole position either, ending up a distant seventh on the grid.
Ferrari had a difficult outing at Fuji Speedway in its debut season last year with both its cars finishing a lap down on the winning Toyota, and Giovinazzi fears that the Italian marque is set for another frustrating result on its return to the 4.5km circuit.
Asked to explain Ferrari’s poor showing in qualifying, Giovinazzi told Autosport: “Just no pace. I did the maximum I could do but the car was difficult to drive today in quali. We don't start from a [good] grid position but it's a long race so let's see what we can do tomorrow.
“It was not the pace which we had in Austin and which was better. For some reason last year, we struggled here and same this year. So it's not our track.”
He added: “We have many cars that are better than us – BMW, Alpine, of course, Toyota and Porsche – so it will be a difficult race tomorrow. Let's survive and see where we will finish.”
The #50 Ferrari shared by Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen is contending for the championship, with the trio trailing the #6 Porsche 963 of Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer by 12 points with two races to run.
Estre qualified the #6 Porsche in fifth place, while the #7 Toyota crew that is level on points with the #50 Ferrari ended up fourth in the hands of Kamui Kobayashi.
Fuoco said that Ferrari’s goal should be to take the battle to its closest title rivals to put itself in the best position for the Bahrain season finale in November.
“As always we are here to try to do the maximum, and tomorrow we try to fight,” he said. “Luckily the competitors which will fight for the championship are just in front of us and we [will] try to fight with them if we have the chance.”
Asked what would be a good result for Ferrari on Sunday, Fuoco said: “Surviving. Try to finish in the top five.”
Pressed further on whether that was realistic, he added: “Not really but always we try to make it work.”
Additional reporting by Gary Watkins
