Franco Colapinto’s superb start to life in Formula One continues as he made Q3 at the Azerbaijan GP, outqualifying Alex Albon in the process. He’ll start P9.
Told he would be starting behind the three current champions on the grid, Verstappen, Hamilton and Alonso, he joked about getting them all off the line.
“Yeah, looking forward to tomorrow, I think I’m going to going to practice a few good starts to have a better launch than them [the three World Champions ahead]. Luckily it’s a short straight until T1.”
From FP1, the 21-year-old has been rapid. He was within half a tenth of teammate Alex Albon in FP2 and FP3, and he was just over half a tenth ahead in first practice.
In Q1, he was P8, 0.249s slower than Albon on the last attempt. However, he had been quicker before that.
Come Q2, Colapinto put 0.367s into the Thai driver as both FW46 cars made Q3. The Argentinian driver was an unbelievable 6th fastest in the middle segment.
Williams’s mishap with the fan in Albon’s airbox ultimately denied the world a battle between them in Q3. Colapinto was 0.057s slower compared to his Q2 best. He explained they tried something different for the last run that didn’t pay off, ending up 0.161s behind Fernando Alonso.
Naturally, the young driver from Argentina was buzzing afterwards, nonetheless.
“But I am very excited, it’s an amazing moment, my first Q3 and I am very happy about it to be honest. It’s a moment every driver dreams of. I achieved it in my second weekend in F1, so I can’t be any more happy.
“It was a very good session, I think we put the laps in, every time I had to go out we did a very good job as a team.
“Of course I would have been a little bit happy to finish in front of the Aston [Alonso] maybe, but we did a little step on the set-up to see what we can do, if we could gain a little bit more for the last run on the new tyres, but it didn’t really work out, the rear tyres didn’t stay alive for the whole lap.
“But I think the team did an amazing job to put the two cars in Q3, it’s a very important moment for Williams.
“For me it’s a dream come true, after yesterday, [having] contact with the wall, it was going to be tough, but I think we did a very good job.”
Colapinto admitted he was desperate to repay the mechanics for the work they did following his crash at turn 4 in FP1. Crucially, the car was fixed for FP2 and he could get straight back on track to find a good rhythm again.
“Yeah, it was difficult, but more difficult would have been if I couldn’t do FP2, and luckily the boys in the garage did an amazing job to put the car back out, they didn’t even have lunch, but they were flat out to put my car out in FP2.
“And after they did that it gave me a big confidence boost and a lot of energy to try and achieve a good result for them, for the effort they have been doing this year, and it was nice today to give them back a little bit of what they gave me.
“So I’m very happy about it, of course it’s still a long way to go, but it’s always an important moment for you to be in Q3, and I even did very good laps, every lap [I] was on it.”
Williams struggled somewhat in the race last time out with graining and a lack of race pace compared to Haas in particular, and Colapinto is fully aware of the challenge ahead tomorrow as he takes part in only his second Grand Prix.
“And yeah, I just can’t wait for tomorrow, I think we have a lot of work to do, I think the tyre degradation here is very high and very large, so I need to understand how to improve on that today, a lot of traction, so I need to understand how to keep the tyres alive, it’s just part of the process, but I think it’s going very well.
“We did very good steps already from Monza, so I’m happy about that.
“This race is always a drama, so let’s see how it is tomorrow, it’s going to be my first race here, first time I’ve been in Baku, so everything is going very quick.
“I don’t know the next six circuits, so it’s going to be a challenge at the end of the year, but I am up to the challenge, and I am very happy to be here, and of course extremely grateful to Williams for this opportunity.”
