Franco Colapinto had a hard and long day in Azerbaijan
The entire Argentine strategy vanished after a touch of Alex Albon and was at the bottom, turning only for much of the race.
The company for Franco Colapinto in the Azerbaijan GP, 17th Formula 1 date, was complicated from the beginning. But well at the beginning, because the urban layout of Baku was one that on the Alpine agenda was highlighted as one of those in which the A525 would suffer from the lack of power of the Renault engine. And everything was fulfilled, with nuances, but the weak car that the Estone team put on track for this season could not leave the background in the Azerbaijan classifier: the Argentine was 19th and last among those who finished the race (only Oscar Piestri left).
To the difficulties with which the French Team arrived in his backpack, an extra was added: Collapinto’s blow against the wall during the classification. That forced Alpine to put on track the spare chassis for the Buenos Aires, because the damage to the front were large. The Argentine started 16th with middle tires and a different strategy than that of Gasly, who stung 18 with a hard compound.
The whole strategy went straight to the garbage tacho in Tour 17. Colapint Alex Albon, his ex -companion from Williams. The Thai, with the temperature tires, forced a maneuver where there was no place. He tried to pass to the Argentine inside, completely going above the piano. The touch was inevitablethe Alpine received the impact on the rear and entered a trunk (Albon received ten seconds of penalty). With damage to the left side of the front wing, the Buenos Aires could continue in competition, but already absolutely far from everything.
From that moment on, Colapinto’s career was a boredom, only on the track and without chances of moving forward. In the last laps he starred in the duel with his fellow Gasly, who stopped in boxes was behind his. With new medium tires, the Frenchman was much faster than Franco, who won he managed to defend himself. The former Alpha Touri complained on the radio that his partner moved in braking, until finally, Pierre surpassed him in the penultimate return.
“Very complicated race, without rhythm. Good start, but in rhythm we have no car. It is quite simple, we spend the rubber a lot, we have no rhythm to go forward. We have to take a lot of risk to go and things do not come out for now. You have to improve, a difficult race. You have to work for the next. A long race. I did things well on my side, but I couldn’t do”Said Colapinto.
He spent a weekend for Alpine and the Argentine, while waiting for Flavio Briatore’s decision about Gasly’s partner by 2026. The Saturday classification error was covered by a logical race and the very weak walk of Alpine. There are two opposing realities: for Estone’s Team the best thing that could happen is that the 2025 season is over. Instead, the Argentine needs a little more potential to try to convince the Italian Pope, who warned in Baku that next year’s second armchair is a compulsa between Colapinto and Paul Aron, the reserve. In the meantime, you must continue to perform with your rhythm and speed within the context, follow the hand -to -hand fight with gasly and avoid errors.
