AUSTIN — Franco Colapinto's incredible rise in Formula One shows no signs of slowing down.
It was a tough Saturday for Williams' young driver, but Colapinto bounced back with an impressive performance in Sunday's American Grand Prix, securing 10th place and another hard-fought point for Williams. Colapinto has two points finishes in just four F1 Grand Prix starts, but his lowest finish was 12th in his debut Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
After the race, Colapinto spoke to the media below. SB Nationhow happy he was to pull off a resilient performance for the team that endured a “tough” Saturday.
“I’m happy,” Colapinto began. “Saturday was very tough for us and I think we knew we had the pace to be strong in the car and have a good race. That's why we decided to start hard. [tires]to breathe a little clean air.
“I thought maybe it wasn't ideal, but I knew that if we kept the pace we were at, it would be a better result for us,” Colapinto continued. “And to be honest, first of all, when we were out in the clean air and practicing hard, we were really strong.
“And when you put in the medium; [on]we were flying.
Colapinto praised the entire team's ability to come back strong after a difficult day Saturday.
“So it was great to see how we do.” [bounced back] How we came back stronger after a very difficult day today and yesterday. And it was a tough Saturday for the team. “
The young driver enjoyed his first F1 sprint weekend and outlined how it was a good learning opportunity for him. He will soon be heading into his second F1 sprint race weekend at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in early November.
“I need to be more in control of my timing because it’s been busy and I’m pretty burnt out,” Colapinto said. “I have to deal with more in my free time and try to be as relaxed as possible, because I'm very busy. I'm always under a lot of pressure, so I'm trying to figure out how to manage it better in Brazil. You must try to understand.
But first, I think it was a good experience to try and learn now here in Austin and then become stronger in Brazil.
Colapinto can now turn his attention to next weekend's Mexico City Grand Prix, his first race in a Spanish-speaking country.
Young drivers can't wait.
“Yeah, it's going to be amazing,” Colapinto began.
“Of course they have [Sergio Pérez] But I know there will be a lot of Argentinians as well. I mean, Argentinians here this weekend, it was insane.
“When we were in the truck and doing things on the course, [the driver parade] Everyone was like, “What?” “How are there so many Argentines? What's going on?” and [the fans] It seemed like he was shouting “Franco!” Franco! I thought, “Wow, this is very impressive.”
“It was great to see.”
Colapinto hopes to serve those fans in the next two races.
“And my job is to do what I have to do on the track, and I'm going to show how much I value the fans being on the track. Of course I'm going to enjoy my first race in Brazil. But I'm also going to enjoy racing in Brazil.''Next weekend is Mexico. ”
