The advice for Ferrari's in-waiting F1 star from his predecessor

Ferrari had an embarrassment of riches in the 2020 Formula 2 season. It had five of its junior drivers placed on the final step of the single-seater ladder - where three finished in the top four championship places and two ultimately fought for the title.

Only one will race in Formula 1 in 2021, but he will not be alone in representing the Scuderia's young driver interests on the grand prix scene.

As Mick Schumacher prepares to make his debut in the upcoming campaign - wherever and whenever that is set to begin - he will join Antonio Giovinazzi in being on Ferrari's books (although it should be noted there is a difference between contracts with the F1 team and the driver academy), while racing for another F1 squad. Both will be running Ferrari power at Haas and Alfa Romeo respectively.

Giovinazzi is about to start his third F1 season, again racing alongside Kimi Raikkonen at Alfa. His official finishing positions from his first two campaigns are two 17th places - but that somewhat undersells his story so far. The Italian may have repeated his 2019 standings position in 2020, with a points tally reduced from 14 to four, but the picture looks different if the 'Class A' results are removed.

The final table in Autosport's very much unofficial 'Class B' championship standings (published in full in our 31 December 2020 issue) reveal that although Giovinazzi's recalculated points tally falls from 88 to 39 with the results of the big teams missing, he climbed from 12th to 10th. Plus, he ended up just behind Raikkonen, after being five places adrift in the 2019 version.

This reflects Giovinazzi's improved qualifying form relative to Raikkonen last year, where he edged the 2007 world champion 9-8 - gaining from a 9-11 defeat the previous year. He also edged him on total points finishes (3-2), as the dramatic deficit from the lack of pace of Alfa's customer Ferrari engines forced the team to hastily revise its season targets after winter testing. Suddenly, just making Q2 was the goal.

Giovinazzi set out to improve at the start of races - knowing, much like Charles Leclerc in the works Ferrari, that early gains despite an uncompetitive car could prove decisive later on. This paid off, he was regularly a lap one hero, while Alfa regularly split its strategic options to try and ensure at least one driver had a shot at points should the big teams falter.

But despite closing the gap to Raikkonen, Giovinazzi is still yet to show he can really outstrip F1's most experienced driver on pure pace and there were several negative moments - including his big crash at Spa.

"[There's] still I think a lot of work to do," Giovinazzi tells Autosport. "It's not [finished] yet and I think as well [having] Kimi again beside me next season I think I can still do another step.

"It will be really important to watch him - because I think, like I've said many times, he's still one of the best on the grid, especially on the race pace and managing the race. I'm happy to continue with him."

Giovinazzi's F1 career is an interesting case study for Ferrari.

"You cannot do nothing, and you need to be patient and you need to do what Ferrari want" Antonio Giovinazzi

Like Red Bull and Mercedes, the team should be applauded for the number of young drivers it is supporting in the junior formulas. But in much the same way as at Red Bull in particular, there is a tough bottleneck the closer a driver gets to the top of a junior programme. As Carlos Sainz Jr joins Leclerc at the works operation for the foreseeable future, Giovinazzi and Schumacher know they must remain as understudies.

For both, at different stages of burgeoning grand prix careers, this isn't necessarily a negative, despite the explosive rises of young stars in recent years.

The bottleneck is more problematic for a driver now in the same position as Giovinazzi, then the GP2 runner-up, four years ago: Callum Ilott. The 22-year-old missed out on the 2020 F2 title by 14 points to Schumacher in what was a fluctuating campaign for both drivers. He says he won't be returning to the F1 support series in 2021, but has been signed as Ferrari's test driver.

"Waiting is not, for a young driver, the best mood," says Giovinazzi, who was signed as Ferrari's reserve driver for 2017. "Because you want to be there, you know that you did well in Formula 2 and Formula 3. In all lower categories you want to go to Formula 1. But I still remember from my side that waiting for me in the end I think was the key.

"Because if I went crazy during that two-season [period] and to make stupid things during [those] seasons I will not get my opportunity in Formula 1. I knew that in that moment my route was to be the development driver of Ferrari - so to do a lot of simulator [work], do some FP1s [he did seven for Haas in 2017 and six for Sauber the following year]. And I tried to focus on that side and think about my opportunity that in the future I'm sure will come. And this is what happened.

"So, I waited. I prayed of course 'don't give up' especially in terms of physical training and mental training and everything. And in the end the opportunity actually came after two years, not after one year so it was quite long, but in the end when you achieve the result [you want] you are happy. Of course, if you wait two years it was not ideal, but then [the chance] came and this was the best thing."

What advice does Giovinazzi have for Ilott directly?

"You cannot do nothing, and you need to be patient and you need to do what Ferrari want, and do the best you can do in the route that you have in that moment," he replies. "And be sure you will get the opportunity."

Last year, there was a great deal of speculation regarding the final line-ups at both Ferrari customer squads for 2021. In the end, both Alfa and Haas went with vastly different approaches, as one stuck with its existing line-up, while the other turfed out its incumbents and signed two rookies.

PLUS: The sceptical mindset behind Haas's change of course

But the long-term commitments enjoyed by drivers such as Leclerc and Max Verstappen still remain relatively rare in F1 (and any contract can ultimately be renegotiated if both sides agree). Ilott's F1 dream is far from finished and as his predecessor as Ferrari's in-waiting star suggests, he needs to seize this opportunity to support the Scuderia as best he can.

Giovinazzi's racing programme in 2017 and 2018 was limited - but he got the golden chance to make his F1 debut in place of the injured Pascal Wehrlein, which shows the potential of a supporting deal.