Franco Colapinto endured another frustrating Sunday at the 2026 F1 Singapore GP. His race unravelled when his car stopped at Turn 7, adding to a growing list of reliability setbacks. The Argentine driver had already shown pace by overtaking two cars early, yet mechanical trouble cut his charge short. He reflected on the driveline failure, the mental toll of a gruelling triple-header, and the small positives he can carry into the next one.
“It’s just another reliability issue” says Colapinto after 2026 F1 Singapore GP
The stop in Singapore was not an isolated incident. Colapinto had already parked his car during the Sprint as his A526 broke down.
For Colapinto specifically, the timing has been cruel, arriving just as he needs clean running to prove himself. On this occasion, he gave a blunt assessment of the latest failure.
“It’s just another reliability issue,” he said.
He then explained what he felt from the cockpit.
“We need to wait for the car to come back, but I think it’s our driveline. Because the car didn’t go reverse of just hurriedly forward somewhere. It felt like I was in three wheels,” Colapinto said after the 2026 F1 Singapore GP.
Despite the frustration, he accepted it as part of the racing.
“There’s something wrong with the car. But yeah, it’s part of it. I think we need to work now,” he added.
Three races, three setbacks
Singapore closed out a punishing run of three consecutive race weekends. The sequence began in Baku — when he took out his teammate and Lando Norris — and ended under the lights at Marina Bay. It delivered little for Colapinto. Retirements, damage, and a car that refused to cooperate left him with nothing to show for the effort. He did not hold back on the experience.
“It was definitely the worst triple-header of my career, probably. But it’s been pretty tough,” he said.
However, he quickly turned his attention to what lies ahead. “But yeah, it’s a good one coming up with America – Austin, Mexico, Brazil. That is always a part of the year I wait for. So yeah, hopefully we can turn around the situation there,” Franco Colapinto said.
Overtakes and tyre promise before the retirement
There was a bright spot before the failure. Colapinto had passed Gabriel Bortoleto at the start and Arvid Lindblad on Lap 9, before he got stuck behind Carlos Sainz.
“Yeah, I overtook two cars, so it was good. We were behind the Williams. It was quite quick on the softs, but I was quite stuck behind Carlos [Sainz],” he explained.
He described the difficulty of following closely as he could hold off Isack Hadjar as well.
“I couldn’t really get by. Behind me was [Isack] Hadjar that couldn’t get by either. It’s quite tricky to overtake here, so we were a bit stuck,” Colapinto said.
Still, he saw reason for optimism.
“But not in a bad place, I think, running P13. So it could have been better after putting the softs in the second stint. They had cars in front of me with mediums that were going to be slower,” he said.
He then explained why the compound choice mattered so much. Having started on the mediums, the 23-year-old was targeting getting the Haas pair in the second stint.
“Because the soft was just a much better tyre today. It was looking better, especially against the Haas’. I thought we got get them in the second part of the race,” Colapinto said.
Ultimately, he summed up the weekend as a missed opportunity.
“But yeah, it’s just a pity. I think we need to focus on what’s happening here. But it’s just a bit of bad luck and just things in general going wrong these few weekends.” he concluded.
For Franco Colapinto, the main takeaways from the 2026 F1 Singapore GP was to shift the focus on recovery, upgrades and a fresh start in Austin.
