Franco Colapinto and a difficult classification for the sprint in China

The Argentine driver was 16th and far from his teammate Pierre Gasly, who got into SQ3. This Saturday he will start from the eighth row in the short competition of the second F1 date.

Last January, Flavio Briatore, Alpine’s boss, said: “Franco is competitive, he has to concentrate in qualifying, sometimes when he goes to qualifying he is too emotional and the car is not driven by talent, he has to go to qualifying relaxed and make sure he has enough talent to do well.” The moment of qualy is Colapinto’s Achilles heel. The Argentine driver gave ample evidence that his forte is racing, but when it comes to finding the turn to place himself on the grid, he falters. Even the man who entrusted him with the Enstone team seat said it. In qualifying for the sprint of the Chinese GP, the second date of the 2026 season, the Argentine driver stumbled again in the classification by finishing 16th.

The position doesn’t say much without context. Colapinto was extremely far from Pierre Gasly. The Alpine team came from a weekend in Australia that ended with a result well below expectations, with the Frenchman adding a point almost by fluke, relying more on other people’s evils than on his own virtues. Little reward for a team that bet everything on the new regulations, completely discarding any possibility of competing for something in 2025. Nobody from Alpine left Melbourne happy. The positive behind closed doors was that, as they confessed, they had found the evils of the A526. And so they arrived in China, a track where Gasly had anticipated on Thursday that they were going to be more competitive.

Somewhere there was the competitiveness that the French team had shown in the preseason in Bahrain and that made it a serious contender to fight for the top of the middle zone, pushing aside the four leading teams. In the fast sectors of Australia none of that was seen, but in China, with slower places, the A526 responded. At least with Gasly.

There are mitigating factors. Colapinto had never turned in Shanghai, but it is also true that in training he had been less than three tenths behind the Frenchman. When the qualy for the sprint arrived, the Frenchman made a very big jump and got into SQ3, while the Argentine got into SQ2 by the window, with 16th place. The Buenos Aires native scored 1m34s592 to get right into the cut, against 1m33s970 for the Frenchman.

In SQ2 the issue did not improve for the Argentine. He was 16th and last in the second segment. His engineer asked him to concentrate on the first two sectors, where he lost the most time compared to Gasly. Finally, Franco clocked 1m34s327 and was very far from Pierre, who set the clock at 1m33s405. Colapinto himself was surprised by the difference that his Alpine teammate made out of him.

This Saturday, in the short race of the second date, the Argentine will start from the eighth row. The team’s first report was that there was nothing unusual about car number 43. For Colapinto, the sprint will be a testing platform to find a better pace for the classification of the most important race, Sunday’s, the one that delivers the most points. Gasly, finally, will start from seventh place and with the Frenchman Alpine he achieved the goal they had set of leading the second peloton in the Chinese sprint qualy. In fact, it beat the two Red Bulls, it was only behind the stratospheric Mercedes, the two McLarens and the two Ferraris.