After an impressive FRECA season last year, where he secured three wins, Alessandro Giusti joined ART GP and the Williams Racing Driver Academy for his sophomore Formula Regional Europe season. Following a brilliant win in the rain on home soil, he is now eyeing a move to Formula 3, ideally with his new family at ART GP. Feeder Series caught up with Giusti during the summer break.

By Perceval Wolff-Taffus

Following his French Formula 4 title in 2022, Giusti competed in his first FR Europe season with G4 Racing in 2023, a team that hadn’t scored any points the previous year. The Frenchman was far from thinking that he would lead G4 to race wins and sign with the Williams Racing Driver Academy. 

ART GP behind the talks between Giusti and Williams

“After the weekends of Spielberg and Monza, we got the contact of Williams through ART GP. […] It’s Sébastien Philippe [ART GP team director] who put me in touch with Williams, and who unlocked everything for me to race with them this year.”

This new support from Williams has helped the French driver in multiple ways. “First of all, there is an important financial support. I also have a physio for the whole season, and I have an F1 data engineer who supports me on several races such as Paul-Ricard and who will come back in Austria.”

Recently, Giusti discovered new facilities at Grove’s Williams factory. “I go to Grove much [more] often compared to the beginning because I started [using] the F1 simulator. I also go there for some physical tests. I do the simulator to discover the F1 environment, and when I will arrive in the upper categories, it will also help me to get more prepared.”

A masterclass in the rain

Fourth overall in the FR Europe standings, Giusti has made progress in the first six rounds but was hoping for a little more. “Satisfied? Yes and no. I think there are some moments when we didn’t manage to catch the opportunities, and at the opposite, during the weekends where we were not very quick, we caught these opportunities.”

Teaming up with highly-rated rookie Evan Giltaire, Giusti has been enjoying his relationship with his teammate. “I have the feeling we are two leaders at ART with Evan. We do a super job together, even if we have completely different setups, because we have different driving styles. We manage to find the good package, pushing each other to improve.”

Giusti’s season reached new heights at the latest race in Paul Ricard under the rain, where the Williams junior took the win with a comfortable margin after starting from fifth on the grid. “The race was crazy. I was really gutted in the morning because I felt like I missed pole position. I was purple in the first and second sector, but much less confident on the greasy part at Le Beausset. So I start only P5.”

“The race was under a heavy rain, so it was behind the safety car, and the SC stays [for a] very long time on track. It was a really good restart, Taponen and Badoer have some contact, I’m catching Câmara so quickly and there is another SC. This SC was so long, I was afraid the race wouldn’t restart but it eventually did. I knew I had to make a move in the first two laps, because I knew there was also Ugo Ugochukwu very fast behind me.”

“The overtake on Câmara was lovely, unfortunately people didn’t see the full action on TV. He first goes left, I go right, he goes back to right and I do the switch back. After this, I pulled the gap, managed the tyres and won. From the inside, that race was amazing.”

Macau before F3?

What are Giusti’s goals for the rest of the season? “Honestly, I’m not really thinking of the title, given Câmara’s advantage. I’m not calculating, I will just try to win as much as I can.”

At the end of the year, Macau will host the first Formula Regional World Cup, with multiple teams from FR Europe participating in this maiden edition, including ART GP.

“We’re in talks for Macau… for me, the teams are trying to send the best drivers possible, because to win Macau, for a team, for a driver, it’s exceptional. You are not doing 10,000km [of travel] to do P15, or to do a post-season testing session. I think there will be some interesting names.”

With his first win of the season taking place in the rain just before the summer break, has this performance put Giusti in ideal conditions to negotiate an F3 seat for next year?

“This win arrived at the perfect moment, just before holidays. We will have some nice, good holidays.”

“[F3] is still in talks. […] Clearly, my objective is to stay with ART GP for next year. We really built something with them since [the] end of last year, so my objective is to stay with them in F3.”

Alessandro Giusti will continue his FR Europe season in September with a double-header at Imola and then Red Bull Ring.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency