Last year Luca Filippi was the driver who opened and the closed the first Auto GP season: the Italian driver managed to win both the Series maiden race in Brno and the last one at the Monza grand finale, something that made his season quite special. Now that Auto GP heads for its final 2011 round in Mugello there’s somebody who hopes to do the same: it’s Giovanni Venturini, the young gun fielded by Griffitz Durango.
Generally recognized as one of Italy’s best driving talents Venturini had a great season start in Monza, clinching pole position first and then taking a dominant win, something that was immediately dubbed as a very impressive performance for a rookie and that put him under the spotlight. Now he hopes to end his year in the same fashion he started it, especially because he’s still fighting for 2nd place in the Under 21 standings, with Samuele Buttarelli and Adrien Tambay as his fiercest rivals.“Second place in the Under 21 classification is a very important objective itself, and furthermore it could open me the doors for the GP2 prize test, if Ceccon wins also the Overall classification. So there’s no doubt that I will be pushing as hard as I can, hoping to get back the same amazing feeling I had at the start of the season”.
What’s the balance of your 2011 until now?“I’d split my season in two parts, the first one up to Budapest and the second one from Brno on. The start of the season was great as I was quick straight out of the box: I was second in both the Barcelona official testing days and then at the season opener in Monza I took pole and an easy Race 1 win.Good performances were coming with little effort, the feeling with the car was great, and in Hungary I got another podium finish. I was fighting for the title despite being a rookie, and that felt great.Then, from Brno, things changed: together with the team we decided to do some changes with the differential, but we went the wrong way and I had a bad weekend, maybe the worst in my whole racing career. Obviously once we saw the result we took some steps back, but the car never felt as it did in Monza.In Oschersleben anyway you won again. You managed to keep a charging De Jong at bay, using all of your talent…“If there’s something I already learned in my brief career is that you never know when you will get another chance to win, so if you have one you have to go for it, give everything you can to achieve it. That’s what I did, for me and for my team who was working really hard to get back on the right tracks. I’m very proud of that win, and generally of the fact that until today I didn’t make any mistake, making the most of every single chance I had. On some occasions, we were also struck by bad luck, like in Valencia: at the end of the weekend we discovered that due to a sensor malfunction our engine was getting 15% less fuel than normal, a slight disadvantage that corner after corner turned into a big one. Anyway, in normal condition we miss just two tenths from the quickest cars out there. It’s not a lot, but in a close-fought Series as Auto GP, it’s anyway too much.Do you think that the lack of a team-mate that could help you in the development work on the car made a difference compared to your rivals?“Cipriani improved a lot from the start of the season and helping him to become a better racing driver was a very nice experience. Apart from this, being a sort of ‘gentleman driver’ there isn’t much he can do help us from a technical standpoint, that’s quite obvious. This means that compared to other teams with two or even three cars we have a clear disadvantage because if we want to try different set-ups we can do that only one at a time, and that is a setback with the limited track time we have.Besides this, there’s also the psychological side of it: looking at what happens in a team like Lazarus, just to make an example, it’s adamant that with Onidi and Crestani being so close in performance they are pushing each other to the limit. I don’t have this kind of spur, and maybe this is a little disadvantage too”.Let’s speak about the future: your thoughts about Mugello.“As most of my colleagues, I like the track. I got on podium twice there, when I was racing in F.Renault 2.0, but I know that Auto GP is a different beast and frankly I look forward to the first Practice.Furthermore, it will be a technical challenge for the teams: the straight is very long and it’s uphill, so you need an high top-end speed, but there are also a lot of medium and quick corners, so if you don’t have enough downforce you will end up being slow there. Finding the right balance will be important, and if the teams will opt for different choices we could see a great show. I don’t know if being on home soil will be enough to bring us back to our initial shape, but as I said I have an important aim to achieve, and I will do my best together with Durango”.Auto GP recently announced its 2012 plans, with a calendar that includes trips to Brazil, USA and Japan. What do you think about it?“I have to say that the organizers did a very good job with Auto GP up to today, making the right moves to let the Series establish itself. Also in this case, I think that one must look to what being together with WTCC and Eurosport meant for the Championship: the promotional effect was unbelievable in 2011, so having an even stronger relationship with them can only bring a good outcome. Furthermore, South America and Asia are important markets, so racing there should bring more drivers to the grid. I still have to decide what I’ll be doing in 2012, but surely Auto GP is one of the best options I have”.
