Last year Alfa Romeo – as Sauber – gave Charles Leclerc an opportunity to cut his teeth in F1, which he did while destroying team mate Marcus Ericsson.

For 2019 they welcomed an intriguing new driver pairing: Kimi Raikkonen , ejected from Ferrari to make way for Leclerc, and Antonio Giovinazzi, another Ferrari junior, but one who’d been stuck in a simulator with little opportunity to do any racing for two years.

The result was not a great surprise. Raikkonen, who appeared rejuvenated by the opportunity to get away from the pressures of Ferrari, was strong on race day and consistently added to Alfa Romeo’s points tally. But one-lap pace has never been his key strength and this was where Giovinazzi became an increasing threat as his experience grew.

The team carried their strong late-2018 form into the opening rounds. Raikkonen, the grid’s oldest driver, capitalised on the chances this offered, scoring points in the first four races of the season.

Giovinazzi only contributed a single point to Alfa Romeo’s tally prior to the summer break, losing his best result of that period to the team’s double penalty in Germany. It didn’t look like things were immediately going to get better after the summer break either, as he crashed out of the points at the end of the race at Spa.

However he rebounded impressive, and added 15 points more over the remainder of the year, earning himself a return for the 2020 F1 season. The high point was a double top-five for the pair in Brazil.

As Giovinazzi turned the tables on Saturdays, the qualifying battle between the pair tightened up. He only lost out narrowly by the end of the season. Giovinazzi tended to make better starts than Raikkonen as well: Compared to his team mate he gained a place on average at each race.

Unfortunately for Giovinazzi as his performance improved the car fell away from the pace. Nowhere was this more obvious that at Yas Marina, where the team were a huge 1.8 seconds off their 2018 lap time.

Although Raikkonen finished the season with a significant lead in the drivers championship Alfa Romeo will be encouraged by Giovinazzi’s form following the summer break and hope that he can score points consistently right out of the gate in 2020. But Giovinazzi knows he needs to sustain the progress he’s shown into next season to prove he deserves a long-term future in F1.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Kimi Raikkonen vs Antonio Giovinazzi: Key stats

Kimi Raikkonen vs Antonio Giovinazzi: Who finished ahead at each round

AUS BAH CHI AZE SPA MON CAN FRA AUS GRE GER HUN BEL ITA SIN RUS JAP MEX UNI BRA ABU Kimi Raikkonen Q R Antonio Giovinazzi Q R

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Kimi Raikkonen vs Antonio Giovinazzi: Qualifying gap

Times based on the last qualifying round at each race weekend in which both drivers set a time. Negative indicates Kimi Raikkonen was faster, positive means Antonio Giovinazzi was faster

Go ad-free for just £1 per month >> Find out more and sign up

2019 F1 season review