Franco Colapinto’s impressive start to life in Formula One continued as he finished P11 in the Singapore Grand Prix.
Despite not having the front suspension update teammate Alex Albon received, the Argentine driver was only 0.007s slower in qualifying as they locked out the sixth row, with both narrowly missing out on Q3.
The 21-year-old had a brilliant first lap, passing Albon, Tsunoda and Sainz into turn 1 to move himself into P9.
As Ferrari went for an aggressive undercut, holding off Sainz was never an option. However, Williams got the strategy all wrong as they allowed Red Bull to undercut.
Colapinto had built an almost 5-second gap over Pérez in a very impressive first stint, but it was thrown away as his extra lap on worn mediums was painfully slow versus the 34-year-old’s new hards on an out-lap.
“Yes, a bit frustrating, right?” was the Argentinian driver’s initial response when asked about Williams getting caught by the undercut.
“Yes, well, of course it’s a bit frustrating not to have finished in the points, but it was still a good race, a solid effort from the whole team. So, nothing more, we’ll keep working for the next race.”
With the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and Haas of Nico Hülkenberg ahead of him before the only stops of the day, Williams had to nail the strategy to finish P10. They didn’t.
Nonetheless, Colapinto was satisfied with the efforts of the team.
“It’s a pity to not have finished with points after a good effort, but it is what it is.
“It was a decent race, but of course we made some mistakes that didn’t let us finish in the points.
“We need to do everything perfect. We were not perfect today and I think that’s why we were not in the points.
“But it was still a good race and a good effort from everyone.”
Discussion turned to the first lap.
Colapinto’s brilliant lunge down the inside into turn 1 got him three spots, and he got the car stopped at the apex.
Told that Albon complained about getting pushed off because of it — the Thai actually said “Franco just divebombed! What is he doing?” over team radio — Colapinto stated he felt he did nothing wrong.
Carlos Sainz also had his day post-race, calling it a banzai move.
“I don’t know, I saw a gap and went for the inside, and there was no one next to me, so I don’t feel like I did anything wrong.”
Asked if it was the start of establishing a hierarchy in the team, Colapinto stated it was a clean move that anyone can do.
“I don’t know, I think it was just a racing move. I haven’t seen it yet.”
Yuki Tsunoda started P8 but had an awful launch. While Carlos Sainz went down the outside, Colapinto took to the inside to clear the Japanese driver.
From there, he went late on the brakes and cleanly passed Sainz and teammats Albon.
“I don’t know. I only saw Tsunoda next to me.
“There was a space and I went [down the] inside. In the corner, there was no one on my right, and I left space on the right to the white line.
“There was no one, so I didn’t see the replay.”
Asked to assess his weekend and what the maximum result was, Colapinto was left to rue the strategy that cost them P10.
Williams also could have had both cars in Q3 if things had been perfect.
“We should have finished in the points, I think. [We should have] stopped a bit earlier. It is what it is.
“We could have done a better job at some points.”
I think Checo came on the radio at one point and said you were driving very well and very quick. Was that quite a cool thing to hear?
During the first stint, Sergio Pérez said over the radio that Colapinto is ”very good” and “difficult to pass”.
The young Argentinian explained how he grew up supporting the Mexican due to the relatively close proximity of their countries.
“Yes, I was trying to push. Checo is a super nice guy.
“I grew up watching him racing in F1, waking up early in Argentina. Supporting him as the guy from Mexico, he was the closest to us.
“It was very nice to support him when I was little and now it is even better to be racing with him.”
With a month between Singapore and Austin, it gives Colapinto time to recover from his first three F1 races, as well as getting himself in even better shape for the triple-header to come.
The front suspension upgrade should also be on his FW46 for the United States Grand Prix.
“It is good.
“It is good to recover and to keep progressing as a team. I still have a lot of things to work on. It is good to have a bit of a rest.
“To get the upgrades for my car for the next race will also be really good and really nice. Hopefully a bit more performance coming.”
