Franco Colapinto hasn’t done himself any favors with the P15 finish at the F1 Spanish GP. The Argentine reportedly has a five-race deadline to prove himself to be better than Jack Doohan. Alpine boss Flavio Briatore has set three parameters that Colapinto needs to excel in to retain the seat.
Those parameters, broadly speaking, are to be fast, not crash, and score points. So far, Colapinto has failed to live up to all three requirements. Unfortunately, that poor run only continued at the Spanish GP.
Colapinto crashed at his very first Grand Prix weekend with Alpine. The 22-year-old suffered a heavy shunt during Emilia Romagna GP qualifying. Alpine’s expectations for points rested solely on Colapinto’s shoulders after teammate Pierre Gasly DNF’d at the Monaco GP. However, #43 only managed a P13 finish, lapped twice by the race leader.
At the Spanish GP, Colapinto slipped further down in P15 at the chequered flag. That prompted a question in the print media pen as to whether he needed something ‘miraculous’ to happen to save his Alpine seat.
“No, I don’t think it’s the person you should be asking that, I think,” Colapinto said. “We are growing, you know, with the team and doing step by step. But today was a tough race, I think a tough afternoon, a difficult race. So yeah, I need to focus on Canada.”
Colapinto was satisfied to have run the full race distance at the Spanish GP. While he admitted that it helped him understand the car better, Colapinto discovered that he lacked confidence with the way the car behaved in certain types of corners.
Colapinto may have dodged the question on his future, but Briatore did not mince his words on the Argentine’s poor show at the Spanish GP.
Briatore sets record straight on Colapinto after poor Spanish GP
Briatore did not hold back in expressing his disappointment with Colapinto and his performances thus far in the season.
While the Italian manager empathized with the young driver and the pressure he was under, Briatore made it clear that it was a part of the job, and he needed Colapinto to find his feet as quickly as possible.
“If I were to say now that I was happy, it would be a lie. I’m not happy at all. Now we have to see how the season develops for him,” Briatore told Sky Deutschland.
“Franco is strong enough. In this job, you need to be able to regain your confidence as quickly as possible. So I hope he gets it done quickly and gets on track,” he added.
Speaking at the Spanish GP, Briatore rubbished the five-race deadline theory. He clarified that Colapinto would continue to retain the seat if he performed well. On the contrary, he does not have a five-race guarantee if the results remain poor.
“I don’t know at this moment if Franco will stay for the season or not, but let’s see. Depends on the performance. We’re only looking at the performance — nothing else,” Briatore concluded.
