The debut of Mercedes' Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the first practice session before the Italian Grand Prix attracted attention, but he was not the only young driver making his F1 debut. Franco Colapinto, selected by team principal James Vowles to replace Logan Sargent, also made his grid debut for Williams.
After two solid sessions, Colapinto said he was “proud” of his first day's accomplishments.
“I'm very proud to finish my first Friday as a Formula 1 driver,” Colapinto said in his team's post-practice report. “There are some things to work on together with the team, but overall it was a good first day.”
Colapinto said he was trying to improve his comfort level and find the “sweet spot” with the tyres over the two sessions at Monza, where the track has been resurfaced.
“Instead of going for lap times, I focused on building everything up throughout the session. In FP1 I was cautious because I wanted to get more laps in. In the long runs I'm still trying to understand how to make the tyres last longer and how to find the sweet spot,” Colapinto continued. “In FP2 I was trying to find the limits so I felt much more comfortable and more consistent, which was a good step towards confidence. I'm very grateful to everyone in the team who helped me get up to speed this weekend.”
Williams sporting director Sven Smeets noted that both Colapinto and Alexander Albon looked “comfortable” from the early stages of the race at Monza.
“As expected, the track was quite dirty and low grip at the start of FP1. The kerbs are all new too, so the focus in FP1 was on learning and understanding how the tyres behave on this new surface,” said Smeets. “Both drivers were happy with the car from the start. Alex's pace on the medium tyre was encouraging and Franco built up confidence and pace in both sessions. We saw quite a bit of graining across the field on the long runs, so finding a balance between qualifying and race performance will be key.”
Colapinto recorded the 17th fastest time in both sessions, while Albon moved up to eighth place in Friday's first free practice session. Albon dropped to 13th place in Friday's second free practice session.
“Today was generally good apart from the soft tyre run in FP2, everything else was pretty good. I was in a decent position but it was close and we definitely have some work to do,” Albon said. “I think tomorrow it's going to be a trade-off between qualifying and race pace. There's quite a bit of graining going on at the moment which is really damaging the tyres.
“In terms of getting one-lap performance and long-run performance, it's a little bit tricky, but we'll see what sweet spot we can find.”
