Franco Colapinto completed an enormous performance in a demanding United States Grand Prix of Formula 1in which he finished tenth, scored a point and showed that he had the courage and wrist to fight on the track with older drivers with much more experience than him. And he marveled once again Williams already James Vowlesexecutive director of the British team, who once again praised the Argentine.
“It was a weekend of mixed feelings. Until today we had not executed anything perfectly enough to score points. But in the race we saw an absolutely brilliant performance from Franco and a great effort from the team to score a single point, but a point important in the fight with Alpine and the position in the championship,” he reflected in a video that the Pilarense team shared on their social networks.
“What I take away from this weekend is seeing that we have a competitive car. In the race we fought with Aston Martin and we were able to surpass him on the track. In fact, for me Franco’s maneuver to move to Alonso was ‘the overtaking of the race’. Seeing Franco start from the left, on the outside, and steal his position…” said Vowles, in the midst of a broader analysis, in which he returned again and again to the Argentine’s virtues.
The British engineer highlighted that the team did a tremendous job to improve what was done on Saturday in qualifying. He assured that the chances of Alexander AlbonColapinto’s teammate, from having a good race, disappeared very early due to the damage his car suffered after the collision with Esteban Ocon at startup. And he assured that he is happy with the progress he is seeing in the car and with the work of the Pilar native.
“I love that Franco pushes hard in every race and gives us fantastic performances,” said the man who is largely responsible for the Argentine’s arrival in the premier class.
In it Circuit of the Americas from Austin, Colapinto started 15th – he set the 17th best time in the classification, but benefited from the sanctions to Liam Lawson y George Russell to climb two places on the grid -, crossed the finish line in tenth place and scored one point. Although the numerical result does not do justice to the Argentine’s enormous career, who overcame some testing situations very well, he was intelligent to push the car to the limit, but without going overboard; and he was very close to keeping the lap record, which was stolen by the Frenchman Ocon three laps from the end.
Minutes after the end of the race and with the adrenaline still high, Vowles had already congratulated his young driver with some nice words.
“Franco, a mega, mega race. Yes! Come on! Well done. That was perfect. Really, really well executed. The car is fast, that’s what we saw today in the race, so I can’t wait to see what you can do in Mexico. Come on, let’s keep pushing,” he had told him over the radio when Colapinto had not yet gotten out of the car.