Franco Colapinto shipwrecked with Alpine’s problems in the Hungary GP

The Argentine pilot had a bad start, he went to the background and the team did not help anything in boxes; A combo that left him far from everyone.

Franco Colapinto arrived at Hungary GP urged to sign a good performance. His lack of confidence in the car and the present weak of Alpine conjugated to put the Argentine quickly against the ropes, while rumors about his future echoed in Europe. In fact, a while before the Hungaroring competition began, 14th date of the season, English media assured that the Hungarian result would be decisive to resolve if the Buenos Aires will be on the A525 just around the vacation recess that began as well as the flag of paintings this Sunday was lowered.

Valtteri Bottas, who continues to sound (Toto Wolff publicly recognized negotiations), and even a possible return of Jack Doohan to ownership are the names that float. With that panorama, Franco lowered the visor of the helmet to start in Budapest from the 14th starting drawer, but the race was far from being the one he expectedpart for an error of him and another good portion for the team. The result was a pale 18th place.

First, the pilot. Colapinto mortgaged his chances of having a good Sunday in the game. In the first round, with excursion outside the track in the second curve included, the Argentine lost four places and fell to the 18th. On a track that delivers very few surpass sectors and not even the DRS is transcendental, falling so many positions was no doubt the best start. From there, everything would be more complicated. The ex-Williams denied with lack of grip on the rear train in that first round.

Second, the team. Alpine wreck in Hungary, once again. The Escudería de Estone Last March in the Constructors Championship with just 20 points, all added by Pierre Gasly (Colapinto still does not score, after seven played races, because in Silverstone he did not start). The French Team is messy and the cars arrive little prepared. The examples are found in Canada (changes of brake discs in full grid for collapint), the gearbox that did not let Franco in Great Britain and a leak of water that prevented Gasly from competing in the Sprint of Belgium. And in Hungary a new chapter was added to the novel: the strategy and the stops in boxes.

Colapint started with middle tires and was the first of those who used that compound to stop in boxes. Just 14 turns after the green, the Argentine went to Pits and put him hard. The arrest was very early, too much, because it was clear that it would not reach the end of the race. If that adds that he was 11 seconds stopped by a problem in changing the left rear roof … Franco went to the bottom.

From there, with absolutely all lost, Colapinto maintained a consistent rhythm, between 1m21s high. After just 23 laps with the hard covers, they called it again. To all this, Fernando Alonso, to give an example, continued with the same game of means with which he had left. The second detention was 7S2! The left rear again. Ready, all direct in the trash. “My God!” Bramó Colapinto on the radio of the team. From there in more, the rhythm remained on the radius of 1m21s average at 1m22s medium, but at all times it must lift the rhythm to let all those who took a turn.

The race was lousically managed from the boxes for the two pilots. Pierre Gasly, Collapinto’s partner, was 19th and last on track after a penalty of ten seconds for provoking a collision with Carlos Sainz, who sent it to the bottom. Without the penalty, the French cars would have been 17th and 19th. If a poor career management is added to a car that is good, the result is the one that showed the Hungary classifier.

Formula 1 put a closed sign for vacation until next 29, when the activity of the GP of the Netherlands begins, the 15th date of the 24 agreed. During the recess, probably rumors about the future of Colapint will continue. In Hungary, where he had to make a big leap to silence the noise and establish himself, shipwrecked. Part for his mistake in the first round, another for the team, but the result was 18. The Hungarian Saturday classification, when it went to Q2 and remained ahead of Gasly, seemed the beginning of that necessary envy, but none of that was repeated on Sunday. Franco himself, when they consulted him if he would be in the car in Zandvoort, he could not (or did not want) to confirm it. “I don’t know, I’m going weekend,” he replied. His frustration at the end of Hungary’s 70 laps was clear, is that Alpine did not help at all with his management.