Giovinazzi: Sauber have made a "big step"

Antonio Giovinazzi has praised Sauber for the gains they have made since the last in-season test this year, at Barcelona in May.

Sauber were expected to be by far the slowest car this season, and it looked to stay that way after the first three races, despite Marcus Ericsson’s ninth place finish in Bahrain.

However, since then, Charles Leclerc has picked up 13 points and Ericsson a further six as Sauber look to become a midfield team once again.

Giovinazzi drove two races for Sauber last season whilst Pascal Wehrlein was injured and has driven the car at both in season tests.

The Italian believes that Sauber have made significant gains since the Spanish Grand Prix in May, and that is backed up by the fact the Swiss outfit has scored points in four of the last seven races.

“I think the team is doing a fantastic job,” Giovinazzi said. “In FP1 it’s really difficult to see the difference.

Giovinazzi also drove for Ferrari during the first day of the test and mentioned the obvious gap between the two teams: “Of course it’s another really big step, two seconds from the lap I did yesterday. I think also they did a big improvement from the beginning of the year and I spoke about the rookie test in Barcelona.