Fabrizio Giovanardi rues missed opportunities in Morocco

Team Mulsanne driver Fabrizio Giovanardi’s best result with the Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR in the WTCR season opener was 14th in the second race of the weekend in Morocco.

The Italian, as well as team-mate Gianni Morbidelli, struggled in qualifying, with the former BTCC champion 23rd on the grid and the ex-Grand Prix driver starting last. Both Giuliettas proved more competitive during the races, although a retirement in the third race put an end to hopes of a strong recovery up to the top ten for Giovanardi.

“I think we made the most out of the package we have at the moment,” said Giovanardi to TouringCarTimes. “We are working hard to improve the Giulietta, but qualifying was difficult for us and on a track such as this it was a huge disadvantage.”

“The second race was particularly good, I could feel I had the tools to move up the order and made up several places, which was fun. The third race of the weekend was probably the most disappointing, as I was battling it out with Tom Coronel who ended up 12th and very close to the top ten. I had a brake issue and then a broken oil sump, and that put an end to our hopes of scoring points, which would have been fantastic.”

Although the results were not encouraging, Giovanardi is determined to keep the morale up as he believes the Giulietta has a lot more potential than it showed.

“Had we been able to do more testing we wouldn’t have ended up 23rd and 25th in qualifying, that is for sure,” said Giovanardi. “We need time to develop the car, as it’s completely new to both myself and Gianni (Morbidelli). There are some issues that we need to solve, particularly as we are not able to exploit the new tyres, which are also new for the team. We knew from the start it would have been hard. I won’t pretend I am happy with the results, but I’m sure we will make progress up the order. We want to take that Alfa back to where it belongs and fight with the big manufacturer teams.”

A strong pace in the wet had provided expectations within the team, which brutally faded in the first qualifying.

“The car was pretty good in the wet. We just needed it to rain for a few more hours, but it is what it is. We will take it step by step. The first target will have to be the top ten for the points and, depending on how quickly we can solve the issues, we might target something even more interesting. For now the most important thing is that I had fun and I believe I proved I still have what it takes in terms of driving and race craft,” said Giovanardi.