And finally, Colapinto made his debut at Alpine: calm in the garage, progress on the track, and a blessed pat on the back from “Uncle Flavio.”
ÍMOLA.- When, a few days after the Miami Grand Prix, Australian Jack Doohan was dropped and Franco Colapinto was announced as a regular driver, Alpine declared that it would evaluate the young driver's performance after five races. Here and now, that limit has just disappeared: it's worth starting this Argentine commentary on the first day of the Grand Prix at the Italian circuit. Before he'd even begun to accelerate, the youngster already knew he had the vote of confidence from his new team.
Franco is already racing his A525 in Formula 1. He's moving from anxiety to the pressure of expectations. Surely, as he expressed Wednesday at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari racetrack, Franco has his own expectations and goals. Flavio Briatore, who "rescued" him from Williams to have him race, has delivered by removing Doohan from the second seat in the Alpine team to seat Franco.
And this very Friday, Briatore broke the news that evidently reassured his young discovery: with the mirrored windows of the Alpine hospitality area behind him, unveiled last year before the Belgian GP, Flavio was ending that blessed and unsettling five-race limit that had been announced when Franco became the starter. "I read somewhere that Franco will have five races, but no, there's no race limit. If he's fast, doesn't crash, and scores points, he'll be driving forever," "Uncle Flavio" told the media.
Colapinto had already anticipated this on Wednesday when he said: “It's true that Sunday doesn't end the season, but it doesn't mean I'm going to be demoted afterward. There are many things we'll see, right? And they'll be taken into account, I suppose. I like this circuit. I've won here in Formula 3 and Formula 2. We'll take it step by step.”
So the Austrian GP won't be Colapinto's final exam. Even so, it's clear that Briatore is the ultimate censor , empowered to judge without question within the team. He's known for taking drastic measures when he believes they're appropriate. And as the cars were getting ready to hit the track for the first time this Friday, at the back of the garage, almost leaning against the fence separating the workshop from an area for privileged VIP guests of the team, he watched the actions of the CEO of the Renault-Alpine group, the Italian Luca De Meo.
As Colapinto says, Formula 1 is cruel, and any rookie driver knows that if the boss deems you're not performing well enough (results, speed, money—this is always present, directly or implicitly), you're out. Today you're stronger, but you have to do your part.
A source with access to Briatore told LA NACION that the four-time champion, as team principal, told him: "I'm sure Franco will be faster than Jack [Doohan], but if for whatever reason he doesn't perform, I'll have to act. The team's performance comes first."
At 1:30 p.m. Italian time, Franco took to the track to fulfill his mission. And what is his mission? To be faster or better than Pierre Gasly, his experienced teammate and Grand Prix winner? No. Quite simply, to be better than Doohan . This, to begin with, involves keeping his car intact and moving with enough speed to be there, very close behind (and ahead as he gains confidence) of his French teammate.
Advancing to Q2 and Q3 will be a constant challenge, because at least in Imola on Friday, the A525 with Gasly at the wheel finished third in the second practice session , 0.276 seconds behind the fastest of the day, Oscar Piastri. A truly auspicious position that should be reaffirmed on Saturday in qualifying.
For his part, Colapinto worked tirelessly with an exploratory set-up program, changing the front wing's impact twice. In the first session, he was just under six-tenths behind Gasly after 21 laps. As at Monza 2024, he had a slight off-track excursion in a fast corner, but from that moment on, he showed absolute confidence.
In the second session, Franco focused on preparing the car for long runs. He pitted four times , made some aerodynamic adjustments, and, on medium tires, showed in a long 15-lap run that he could lap at a pace similar to that of seemingly faster cars, such as the Red Bull of Max Verstappen (fifth on the day, just over three-tenths ahead of Colapinto, who clocked 1m16s44/1000 on soft tires). He even had a special moment with MadMax, when the latter was about to overtake him and Franco activated the DRS system, which made the Dutchman react: "What is this guy doing using DRS?" he asked over the radio to the Red Bull pit box. The response from his engineer was equally disconcerting: "I have no idea."
To achieve his best time, Franco fitted the C6 tyres, the supersoft tyres in Pirelli's range, and achieved his best lap, finishing 4.75 seconds behind Gasly . The micro-sectors in the fast corners revealed a certain lack of confidence, as it was difficult to string together several green (faster) laps on the timesheets.
In the garage, between sessions, he seemed quite calm and focused solely on the work, not on what might happen this Friday at Imola. Even when he made his debut at Monza last year, making a very good impression, the pressure he felt was greater than what he claims to no longer feel today, at least not to the extent that it affects his performance. In the media area on official TV, after the day's session, he maintained a sober tone: "It was a good first day. We have to keep progressing , understand many things in the data [the car's telemetry] tonight. And come back a little stronger tomorrow. But anyway, adapting to the car... to the team, to the engineers. And we'll certainly take a step forward tomorrow [Saturday]," he predicted.
Based on what we've seen so far, the A525 has great potential to score points on Sunday. Looking ahead to Saturday's qualifying, Gasly can aim for a top-ten finish, and Franco, a chance of advancing to Q2. If we compare the time clock, following the adjustments they were making to their car before nightfall, the gap to Pierre should be reduced to three-tenths .
Collaboration : Jaime Pintanel
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