“Now you are a Williams driver with points in Formula 1. That will never change, no one can take that away from you. Well done. It was a weekend that you executed perfectly from start to finish. I am proud of you.” Those words of James Vowles to Franco Colapinto were the perfect summary of the unforgettable and exciting day that the man from Pilar lived in Baku, where he finished eighth in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and became the first Argentine to score points in a premier class race in more than four decades.
It was only his second performance in a Great Circus test and the first in a setting completely unknown to him. After his debut in Monzawith a great 12th place, the event on the very tough track of the Azerbaijani capital was presented as an enormous challenge for the young driver from Pilar. But despite his inexperience in street circuits, he quickly found his way to the streets of Baku, from which he took a valuable four units.
Thus, he entered the select group of Argentines who managed to score in F1. The last one, in South Africa in 1982, had been Carlos Reutemannwho achieved a total of 310 points throughout his career in the top category. Before, they had achieved it Juan Manuel Fangio (277), Froilán González (77), Roberto Mieres (13), Carlos Menditeguy (9), Onofre Marimón (8) y Oscar Galvez (2).
“I feel very happy. It’s a dream come true. I didn’t expect to have points already in my second race. It is something very positive. I am showing that I can have good results and I am returning the trust they had in me by putting me in this seat,” Colapinto celebrated.
The Argentine, who joined Williams in the Monza preview to occupy the seat that the American had for the rest of the season Logan Sargeanthas the support of the entire team. And yesterday, while he was doing his race preparation routine, the person who gave him a motivational talk was Gaëtan Histhe engineer who is in constant communication with him during the competition.
“There are 51 laps. Baku can be very complicated. It’s never the end, so whatever happens to you… If you lose pace at the start or if you gain a position, remember that we have to stay focused and anything can happen. We have a fast car, you are driving well, you learned a lot about what you have to do in time management. If you apply everything… it will be payday. Focus on everything you learned and you will be doing great,” Jego told him. Franco listened and paid attention to him.
He had an impeccable start and managed to retain his starting position, eighth, because although he had finished ninth in the classification, he climbed one place on the grid due to a penalty he received. Lewis Hamilton. But he began to suffer a lot with tire degradation, he had to pit very early (on the 11th lap) and fell to 15th place. Although upon returning to the track he had a hard time managing the hard tires at first, he was finally able to find his best rhythm and was making up ground.
He drove calmly without making hasty decisions. He had two great maneuvers, on turn 21 to overtake Pierre Gasly and in 49 to leave behind Nico Hulkenbergjust before the crash enters Carlos Sainz y Sergio Perez allowed him to return to eighth place. And as a bonus he managed to hold off Hamilton, who ran behind him for a good part of the test, but failed to pass him and finished ninth.
“That was crazy. She saw him behind (the seven-time champion of Mercedes) and said ‘At least I’m going to try to keep it there.’ Even if I didn’t score points, that was already an achievement,” he said later with a huge smile in a conversation with ESPN.
Lewis himself recognized the Argentine’s great performance. After getting out of the car, he approached, touched her shoulder and shook her hand, with a gesture that seemed like validation. And although he had a hard time remembering his last name, he later stated: “It’s fantastic to see talented young people get ahead and drive so well. I don’t remember the name of the Williams boy… Colapinto (he repeated it after being reminded). He did a great job.”
In the Williams box, that eighth place (added to Albon’s seventh) was celebrated with great enthusiasm. It was the first time this season that the team’s two cars combined in the same Grand Prix.
“It was a complicated half of the race in terms of tires, I think due to my lack of experience. But when we revived the leads, it started to work much much better and I found a better rhythm. “It is an incredible result,” Colapinto analyzed.
“We thought it was going to be very difficult to finish in the top ten, but having both cars in the top 8 is crazy. Very happy for the team because they did a tremendous job this weekend, especially to fix the car that I broke in the first practice. I am returning the trust they had in me with good results. “This is just the beginning for me, but it is a great start and it excites me for what is to come,” he added.
In that nice chat with Vowles on the radio after crossing the finish line, Colapinto revealed that he had extra motivation to face Baku.
“Last week at the factory I saw the sign with Alex’s name and the points he has. And he motivated me, because I wanted to see my name there too,” he said.
And although he had not yet gotten out of the car, he was encouraged to double down and stated: “I am very happy for these points, for giving them to the team. Give them back a little of what they gave me and the trust. Singapore is going to be another challenge, but I’m sure we can do a good job there too.”.