Franco Colapinto warned that Australia’s start could have been a disaster

The Argentine driver spoke in advance of the Chinese GP, his first experience on the Shanghai track and spoke of the miraculous maneuver with which he avoided a tremendous accident with Liam Lawson at the start of Melbourne.

The 13 degree temperature reached Franco Colapinto from what was seen in the images that came out of China, home of the second Grand Prix of the Formula 1 season. With a jacket and well wrapped up, the Argentine Alpine driver spoke in advance of his first experience on the Shanghai track, but did not forget the competition from Australia that opened the agenda just four days ago. And there the man from Buenos Aires starred in one of the most impressive maneuvers in recent times when, in full acceleration at the starthe found Liam Lawson standing in the middle of the court. The Enstone team driver made a miraculous swerve on pure reflex to pass his A526 through the narrow corridor that was left between the New Zealander’s Racing Bulls and the wall.

“I was very lucky and I was quick in my reaction to save the car and save parts of the equipment and I was able to complete the race. It could have been a disaster in the middle of the straight. It was dangerous. You are not prepared for that, it comes out naturally, the maneuver with Liam was very close, it was very close,” Colapinto said. “When I saw the on-board cameras I realized that I was closer than I thought,” added the ex-Williams.

Colapinto, like the rest of the grid, expected that these types of circumstances could occur at the start with the new power units. “We knew that these things were there, they were problems that all the teams were having. We talked about how these things were going to be something to watch for possible dangerous situations that could arise in the starts, and it happened. Unfortunately it was my turn, although luckily I was able to get out of it. I think everyone is going to improve that inconsistency that exists in the games,” he added.

“I think as time goes on it’s going to get a lot easier and better. But right now it’s a little dangerous. I didn’t see any flags or any lights on the back of Lawson’s car that would alert me. I don’t know if his team knew before he actually made the start that they had that problem. and they could anticipate it a little more. It’s too early to say. It’s just the first race. Of course, if we have these situations every weekend, at some point something is going to happen. Let’s hope it improves,” Franco closed the topic.

As for China, it is a completely new challenge for the Argentine because he has never raced on the Shanghai track. However, it diminished its significance. “Everything is new, but I’ve been in these situations before. I spent 24 weekends with a barely known car in a few races in F1. It will be important to quickly adapt to the car, to the track… This track is very technical, it is quite complicated, it has long corners and many different speeds and I think that with the power unit we will also have to adapt to the energy management.”

Finally, Colapinto spoke about the Mercedes power unit and the need to squeeze it much more on the weekends. “There is still a long way to go to maximize the power unit 100%, but I think that not even Mercedes is doing it. It is a process that takes time and races and tests with positive and negative things.”. In Australia we were better in the race, we are slowly understanding things and the laps we do are going to help us with that. “Now it is an adaptation race,” he said. That adaptation will be short in China because the second appointment will be the first of the six with a sprint race and everyone will only have a 60-minute session of training to understand everything.