It is not necessary to mention the phenomenon that generated Franco Colapinto in Argentina since his arrival to Formula 1. But that successism that we sometimes tend to show as a society with sports idols can make us lose focus on reality. That’s why Clarion He chatted with foreign journalists who cover the most important category in world motorsports all year round, something like the correspondents of the F1 World.
Previously, Felipe Mc Gough, an Argentine businessman linked to the world of motor sports and one of those who best knows the circus of the category from the inside, had said that in the paddock ““Everyone talks about Franco”. The comments received from other colleagues are along those lines.
“Technically, in the first race, things surprised me that made me think that Franco had already been in Formula 1 for ten years,” he told this newspaper. Luis Manuel LopezMexican television commentator. For The thingas is better known, “pressure was never pressure for him. That You know how mentally devastating this sport is.”.
But what surprised him most was how he managed the tire in the first race he ran, in Monza: “Without having driven the car and especially without having driven that type of tire in his stint definitive handling of the hard tire, which is the most difficult, he put in 40 laps as the winner of the race. That tells you that he naturally knows how to get into the car and that in Formula 1 is very difficult.”
For López, who highlights the mental determination with which young drivers come today, “it is the great strength that the drivers of this era have against those drivers who arrived with many commitments in the 90s, who did not want to damage the car at all and They didn’t want to be exposed. And now I see that Franco arrives with all the cards in his hand, because He knows that his future depends on him and nothing else.. So that seems very good to me.”
The Mexican defines it as “a fresh driver, a very young driver who is obviously seeing what his future is going to be” and recognized that establishment of the press that covers F1 “does not like it when a driver does not become a Formula 2 champion or when the driver does not have, let’s say, the triumphs that others have.”
However, he highlighted that he has “heard from some European colleagues who distrust that Franco has the skills to sustain himself in Formula 1. I’m telling you, I’m telling you without any desire to look good to anyone: Franco is a Formula 1 driver, he is not a Formula 2 driver, he is a Formula 1 driver and he showed it”.
Along a similar line is the opinion of Diego Mejiaa Colombian television commentator, who defined Colapinto as “a very fast, very talented driver, one of those who can find the limit quite quickly, without too many laps”. But he also acknowledged that “giving the performance he has given here in Formula 1 from the first time, it was not imaginable that it would be like this.”
Mejía has been seeing the Argentine driver for a long time, since he was also in coverage of Formula 3 and Formula 2. That is why “he knew from what he had spoken with him in the past, that there were things that favored him to be able to perform as he has done specifically with those cars. And in the end what matters most today, and it is something that is becoming quite clear: To perform in Formula 1 you need natural talent like Franco haswhich adapts very easily.”
The Colombian was blunt when referring to the Argentine driver’s future: “His performances are guaranteeing him a future in Formula 1. He will be the future of Latin America in Formula 1.”