Alpine’s Franco Colapinto has opened up about the limitations of the A525, the strategy choice, and Nico Hülkenberg’s spin following his sixteenth-place finish at the F1 Singapore GP on Sunday.
After struggling for pace throughout the practice sessions at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Colapinto failed to make it out of Q1. However, he managed to outpace his experienced teammate in Grand Prix qualifying for the fifth time this season.
Starting Sunday’s race on the soft compound tyres, Colapinto had a great launch off the line from the eighth row and made up three places on the first lap. He dived into the pits for mediums on lap 14 in an attempt to undercut his immediate rivals on the track.
Unfortunately, Colapinto ran the latter half of the race in a frenetic queue of cars, jostling for positions. It was challenging for the 22-year-old to keep cars on fresher tyres behind, and he ultimately crossed the line in P16.
Tough Sunday
Speaking in the print media pen after the race, Franco Colapinto admitted that he had a frustrating Sunday on the streets of Marina Bay. Noting how physically taxing the 62 laps under the lights were, he also stated that the limitations of the Alpine A525 and the alternate soft/medium tyre strategy hindered his progress after the opening lap.
While he highlighted the ample action that took place at a circuit where overtaking is typically quite difficult, Colapinto explained how their lack of pace at the F1 Singapore GP followed a similar pattern they had witnessed in Baku.
“Yeah, just a very long day, very tough, no pace in the car. I think it’s just a frustrating afternoon. We did our best. We had a strange strategy to try and make it work and do something different to the others, but it also didn’t work. Just a lot of degradation in the car, the tyres falling apart, and nothing really clicking together.
“It’s tough out there; it’s not what we want. We just need to keep pushing, but it’s definitely very difficult at the moment.
“I mean, it’s hard to overtake, but we just were overtaking constantly in the race. I made up places in the start. Like in Baku, we were the same, and then just dropping back, struggling for pace.”
Colapinto addresses Hülkenberg’s spin
Nico Hülkenberg was engaged in an intense battle with Franco Colapinto for 14th position on Lap 43 when the German clipped the rear of the Alpine in Turn 8, breaking his Sauber’s front wing endplate.
On the subsequent lap, Colapinto’s unexpected braking point caught Hülkenberg off guard as he approached Turn 7. As a result, the 38-year-old spun out of control and ascribed blame to the Argentinian driver post-race for hitting the brakes too early.
Although the stewards had initially noted the incident, they eventually delivered a ‘no further action’ verdict.
Colapinto, however, didn’t seem particularly concerned about having prompted Hülkenberg’s spin during Sunday’s Singapore GP and remarked that he was unsure how it had exactly transpired.
“I don’t know; I just saw him in the mirror spinning. I can’t tell you, he should tell you for [himself].”
