Franco Colapinto finished P19 at last weekend’s F1 Belgian GP. Mixed wet conditions proved to be difficult for the Alpine driver, as he struggled to find pace on both the intermediate and slick tyres. Colapinto and his team opted for the two-stop strategy which ultimately was to their own detriment.
Colapinto on pitting a second time to cover Carlos Sainz
The Argentinian driver has struggled to come to terms with his Alpine this season. He has failed to score any points in his seven race starts, his highest finish being P13. This matches Jack Doohan’s best finish, whom Colapinto replaced after the Miami GP.
Colapinto commented on his tough Belgian GP in the print media pen.
“It was a long race. We were quick on the inters, I was catching a bit of wind in front and then boxed onto the slicks and we were just not really quick enough.
“We had 3-4 cars in front with dirty air, overheated a bit the tyres, and then it kind of snowballed down and we had no real pace on slicks.”
Colapinto and the Alpines had their sights set on finishing ahead of Williams driver Carlos Sainz. When Sainz boxed for a new set of slicks on lap 26, Colapinto followed suit on lap 28. This strategy move did not work out how they wanted, however.
“Tricky, tried to understand why now, but it was not an ideal race. It was a tough one and we boxed to try and cover Sainz, but at the end we didn’t really cover him.”
This strategy call was ineffective, as the state of the tyres was not due to wear, but overheating.
“I think there wasn’t any real wear deg of the tyre, it was just thermal, so after five laps I ended up with the same issues as before.”
Alpine’s setup preferred a wet race; the red flag complicated things
It seemed as though Alpine was heavily influenced by the weather radar when setting up their car this weekend. As it was calling for a wet race, they were at a disadvantage when the race was red flagged.
When asked if they were hoping for sustained wet conditions, Colapinto stated: “A bit yes, but I think not as much to be that far off in the dry.”
Colapinto also commented on the difficulties that come with timing the red-flagging of a race in his interview.
“I think it’s tricky for the FIA. In Silverstone they were saying it was too wet, now that it was too dry, it’s tricky for them. I think it’s very difficult to judge before the cars go out on track.
“Of course we will talk to try and understand if we should have went earlier or not.”
Colapinto’s teammate Pierre Gasly managed to take home a point for his P10 finish on Sunday. The Argentinian gave props to his teammate, stating that his job is now to find where he lacked performance this weekend.
“Well done to Pierre for scoring a point in tough conditions, but we just need to understand why we were lacking that pace in the dry.
“It was just tricky, a tricky weekend. We need to understand now in this week to come out stronger next week.”
The rookie looks forward to having a smoother race next weekend. The Hungaroring is famous being the backdrop for debut victories, maybe it will feature a headline performance for Franco Colapinto next time out.
