Franco Colapinto has finished Sunday’s F1 race for the Hungarian GP on 18th position, after initially starting P14. The Alpine driver believes that the race didn’t go their way, but some positives were still found on his side.
Difficult Hungarian GP race for Colapinto
Due to the nature of the Hungaroring, it’s difficult to overtake and gain positions. Especially after losing out on the start or during pitstops: “We lost a lot of places, and then we couldn’t really recover. A lot of blue flags that we took twice because of the early stops and the long pit stops”, Colapinto said in the print media pen after the race.
“We didn’t have a lot of space in the car, but I think we had more than where we ended up. It’s a bit of a pity to end the last race before the break like this.
“I think it was just not our race in general. We made mistakes everywhere in the start and in the stops. It was not a clean day,” he concludes, adding despite finding some performance, there were struggles: “We need to understand why and come back stronger after.”
Getting more comfortable in the car
“It is very important. I think it’s the kind of thing I take with me after this weekend. After a difficult weekend, it’s sometimes not easy to see the positives,” Colapinto explained when asked on how important it is to feel more comfortable going into the second half of the season.
“Even though we finished with both cars in the back, I think I can take some good things from this weekend. I did find some inconsistencies in the car, which I was happy with.
“Of course, I need to keep finding more stuff!”
Alpine to continue with Colapinto after the summer break
Jumping in for Jack Doohan, Colapinto was the teammate of Pierre Gasly from the Emilia Romagna E-Prix. It was communicated that the Argentinian would remain until prior to the British Grand Prix. He continued on, however, as well as from Belgium, where rumours circulated he would be replaced by Doohan.
In July, The Race reported that Valtteri Bottas from Mercedes would be an option to replace Colapinto sometime during the second half. Gasly labelled those rumours as “a lot of noise”, as he wants to focus to be on improving the performance. Now, PlanetF1 has learned, that Colapinto will continue with Alpine for the foreseeable future.
Formula 1 returns in Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.
