Franco Colapinto shone in China in his best career in F1
The Argentine driver was involved in the fight at the front, gave a defense class, suffered a strong blow from Esteban Ocon and finished tenth in an outstanding performance.
It is true, it was not his best result in Formula 1 because he could not surpass that already distant eighth place in Azerbaijan 2024 with Williams. But not everything is measured by results, in any sport. There are always contexts to evaluate the work and Franco Colapinto achieved it in the Chinese GP, second date of 2026, his best Formula 1 performance. The final tenth place could have been better, yes, but the Argentine’s task was brilliant from start to finish.
Colapinto started 12th and with an advantage: the two McLarens retired from the grid and could not even start. At the start, the Alpine rider overtook Max Verstappen (again he started badly, as had already happened in the sprint) and Nico Hülkenberg. Thus, he placed eighth. Immediately, a spin by Isack Hadjar, plus the dodging maneuver by Oliver Bearman, put him in sixth and he intermingled in the front area.
The race took a big turn on lap 11. Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin stopped on the track and race management stopped everything with a safety car. It was the moment chosen by all those who had started with medium tires for an early pit stop, among them, Pierre Gasly, Coalpinto’s teammate. Alpine opted for two different strategies: the Frenchman started with medium and the Argentine, with hard. Only Kimi Antonelli, the leader of the race, was able to start ahead of the Argentine, who placed second, his best partial position in his time in the top category.
At that point Franco gave his best. Behind him were the two Ferraris and George Russell, with his powerful Mercedes. The race was restarted on the 13th lap and Colapinto held second place for two laps. Then he gave in to the rival power: Lewis Hamilton passed him in 15th and Charles Leclerc and Russell, in 16th. Franco came in fifth and withstood all of Esteban Ocon’s attacks, the only one who had the same strategy as the Argentine and went with the tough ones. At times, the two Haas attacked him in a square and the Argentine defended himself brilliantly, taking care of the rope, mainly when braking at the end of the long straight in Shanghai. Finally, Bearman and Verstappen overtook the two, but Ocon was still behind. The Argentine even worked to help Gasly: he covered Haas and his teammate overtook both of them to go ahead.
Then came the key moment. Ocon stopped in the pits on lap 30 and Colapinto, on lap 33. The Alpine returned to the track just ahead of the Frenchman, who in the second corner went completely out of control, almost on the ground, and hit him hard.. Franco spun, but was able to continue (the Haas driver was penalized with ten seconds). With damage to the floor of the A526, the Buenos Aires native maintained the pace as best he could from 12th place. First he overtook Arvid Lindblad and then took advantage of Verstappen’s retirement to jump to tenth place. In the final laps he attacked Carlos Sainz’s Williams, but it didn’t reach him. Finally, he was tenth and scored one point.
No, it was not his best result on the track, but it was his best performance for everything he experienced in the 56 laps in Shanghai. The Argentine needed a convincing task and he got it with a great recovery within the same weekend. On Friday he started slowly and very far from Pierre Gasly. The team worked and found several small things in the car, as confirmed by the Argentine driver. Already on Saturday the progress was seen and he was left out of Q3 by only five thousandths, nothingness itself. And on Sunday it shined.
After a 2025 year of disappointment and poor team performance, Franco needed a career like the one in China. Because although everyone knew that the issue was the car, due to Flavio Briatore’s decision to use every team resource on the 2026 car, the string of bad results attacks the driver’s mind. No matter how strong you are. The best example is Lewis Hamilton, winner of seven titles and who ended 2025 in low spirits with a Ferrari that did not respond at all. To make matters worse, the Australian start had been very uphill for the French team and Gasly’s tenth place was a very minor prize for such a big bet.
The team leaves China with a different feeling. For the first time since Brazil 2024, both of their cars finished in the points zone (Gasly was sixth). In two races, those from Enstone scored 10 points, almost half of the 22 they scored in the 24 dates last year. For Colapinto, it was a career he needed. It was his first point with Alpine (he had not scored since United States 2024 with Williams). It could have been more without Ocon’s crash, without the inopportune safety car, without the great wear of the medium tires at the end… Yes, the result could have been better, but his performance was outstanding. And that’s what he needed to be able to start to let go more, gain confidence and start enjoying each weekend in Formula 1 more.
