Kimi Raikkonen vs Antonio Giovinazzi: Who will come out on top?

Led by Fred Vasseur, the team have appeared to close the gap to midfield this season, with their performance both in testing and in the opening Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit looking promising.

The car has undergone several upgrades ahead of the 2021 season, but one thing that hasn’t changed is their driver line-up.

Both Raikkonen and Giovinazzi have stayed at the team, despite the likes of Callum Ilott and Robert Schwartzman pushing for a seat following impressive Formula 2 campaigns for the pair, meaning that Alfa Romeo are one of just three teams to retain their drivers this year, with Mercedes and Williams the other two.

In Raikkonen, the team has the most experienced driver on the grid, with Imola set to be the Finn’s 334 Grand Prix entry, the most of the current 20 drivers in F1.

Giovinazzi by comparison has entered 41 Grand Prix’s so far in his career, and he’ll need a good season if he wants that number to increase in 2022, with the aforementioned Ilott, and several F2 drivers gunning for a seat next year.

But who will come out on top this year?

Experience swings things entirely in Raikkonen’s favour, with the oldest driver on the grid amassing one Drivers’ Championship title, 21 race wins, 103 podiums and 1,863 points across his long and illustrious career in the sport.

Giovinazzi however, is still extremely underrated in the sport, and the Italian driver actually matched Raikkonen’s four world championship points last year and beat the Finn in qualifying over the course of the season.

Furthermore, the 27-year-old managed to finish 11 of the 17 races in 2020 in a better position than where he qualified; that’s certainly impressive for someone generally running towards the back of the field, especially when you consider that he had three DNFs as well.

Giovinazzi is quite simply the king of starts with his launch off the line and overtaking pedigree on lap one the best on the current grid. Last year, he completed 59 overtakes on the opening lap of races, which was the most of any driver by a considerable margin.

However, despite that immense ability when the lights go green, and winning the qualifying battle with Raikkonen, he lost the battle on a Sunday 12-5 to the Iceman, and it’s this that he’ll look to improve in 2021.

In Raikkonen’s case, he simply needs no introduction; the 2007 world champion knows every trick in the book, and whilst the sport is simply “a hobby” for him, that competitive edge still burns within him even if he’s ice cool on the outside. 

He’s the cult hero in the sport who does all of his talking on the track, and in that regard he’s excelled ever since his Sauber debut back in 2001.

Many have questioned whether his speed will deteriorate will age, but he’s remained as consistent as ever, and if Alfa Romeo can deliver on the promise of joining the midfield pack, then who better than Raikkonen to consistently extract the most out of the car and score some impressive points.

Round One to Raikkonen:

Whilst neither scored points in Bahrain, Raikkonen took an early lead in the teammate battle, with the Finn coming in 88.864 seconds after Lewis Hamilton to take 11th place, just 2.151 seconds behind Lance Stroll who took the final points position in 10th.

Giovinazzi on the other hand was just one place further back, in 12th, but he had been lapped by the leaders.

The disappointing thing for the Italian was that he had out-qualified his teammate, setting a time of 1:30.708 in Q2 to put his car in P12, with Raikkonen in P14 behind the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda.

In fact, Giovinazzi was only 0.084 seconds away from reaching Q3, something he managed on one occasion last season (in Turkey).

It was far from a rout from Raikkonen in round one, and just like 2020, this battle looks set to get down to the wire, especially in qualifying. However, with the experience that Raikkonen possesses, it’s hard to count against him, and whilst Giovinazzi is talented, he doesn’t have the racecraft that the Finn does; that’s what will count against him in this particular battle.