Antonio Giovinazzi remains focused on retaining his seat in Formula 1 for 2022 with the Alfa Romeo Sauber operation.
Giovinazzi, a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, is in his third full season of F1 but is out of contract at year end.
His seat is the only one yet to be confirmed for next season, with a number of others linked to the drive.
Key among them is Chinese driver Guanyu Zhou, who currently sits second in the Formula 2 Championship behind Oscar Piastri.
The Australian has also been linked with the move, though suggestions from within his camp are that his chances of securing the gig for 2022 are not strong.
Zhou meanwhile brings with him both F2 race-winning pace and sizeable backing from his homeland.
It paints a bleak picture for Giovinazzi, whose own hopes have been weakened due to Ferrari’s reduced influence on Sauber going forward.
“To be honest, for now I want to focus to keep the seat in Formula 1,” Giovinazzi said of his future.
“Then, if in the worst case, I will start to think about but next year, but for now [I] just want to focus on my job here in F1 and try to keep my seat.”
Giovinazzi has been linked with a move to Ferrari as reserve driver, and with the team’s World Endurance Championship programme, with on-track testing due to start in the second half of next year.
It’s also been suggested that he has local government funding helping his cause as he attempts to retain his seat with Alfa Romeo.
“It’s not a question for me, to me, to be honest,” he said when asked when he expects to hear a decision regarding his services for 2022.
“You need to ask this to Fred [Vasseur].
“To be honest, I don’t have any news about this,” he added of the potential for government support.
“I don’t know, no, we’ll see…. I didn’t speak with anybody and didn’t have any contact with anybody.”
Giovinazzi has been in strong qualifying form in recent races, making it to Qualifying 3 in both Italy and the Netherlands.
However, a crash during the opening segment of the session in Russia left him 18th on the grid, going on to race his way forward to 16th while team-mate Kimi Raikkonen rose to eighth.
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