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Alpine are in a major problem right now. They lost Fernando Alonso to Aston Martin and their reserve driver Oscar Piastri left for McLaren.
After being put in this unfortunate situation, Alpine must look for a second driver for the 2023 season. They are reportedly conducting a special test at Hungaroring, the host of the Hungarian GP, before the Singapore GP on October 2.
Motorsport.com also reports that the private test will include Antonio Giovinazzi, Ferrari's reserve driver. Other rumored participants of the test include Alpine academy driver Jack Doohan, Nyck de Vries, and Colton Herta.
Giovinazzi last raced in F1 in the 2021 season for Alfa Romeo. His seat was taken by Zhou Guanyu in the 2022 season. Giovinazzi was the 2015 F3 European Championship runner-up and the 2016 GP-2 world championship runner-up with Prema Racing. He made his full-season F1 debut in 2019 replacing Marcus Ericsson at Alfa Romeo.
He finished the season 17th in the drivers championship with 14 points and a career-best 5th place finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The following season, he again finished 17th in the driver's championship with four points, the same as teammate Kimi Räikkönen.
Giovinazzi outqualified his Finnish teammate in nine of the season's 17 races. In the 2021 season, the Italian finished 18th in the championship and scored three points.
He was let go by Alfa Romeo at the end of the season. Ferrari retained the Italian as a reserve driver for the 2022 season. Alfa Romeo replaced the Italian with Chinese F2 driver Zhou Gianyu. Giovinazzi was not happy with the decision and voiced his displeasure on social media. He tweeted:
"F1 is emotion, talent, cars, risk, speed. But when money rules it can be ruthless. I believe in the surprise of an unexpected result, of big or small victories achieved thanks to one's commitment. This was my first photo on an F1, the last one has not yet been taken"
Alpine looking forward to upgraded cars at Singapore GP
Alpine is bringing a new floor to the Singapore GP which would considerably increase downforce and therefore improve the performance of the car. The French team are looking to at least finish fourth this year but McLaren are not easing up. With 18 points separating the two teams, the pressure to perform well in every race is very high.
