Williams had a great day in Baku in earning seventh and eighth
Franco Colapinto admits that his Williams Formula 1 team and its boss James Vowles made a “difficult bet” by promoting him to a race seat and ousting Logan Sargeant.
The Argentine driver adds that he hopes that he has been able demonstrate that he deserves to have a seat.
Colapinto impressed the F1 paddock in Baku by not letting an FP1 crash distract him and by subsequently qualifying ninth and finishing eighth at a track he had not previously seen.
He still has a chance to land a Sauber race drive for net year, with the Swiss outfit in no hurry and assessing all its options.
“They showed so much confidence and trust in putting me in a seat,” he said of the Williams decision.
“It was a very difficult bet, and a bet that many people didn’t understand. But I hope I come to be showing what I’m capable of, that I deserve a seat in F1.
“The opportunity that James gave me is helping me to show that. I am just doing a lot of work to try to learn quick I have very little mileage in an F1 car. It’s only two races, and FP1, and a few laps in Abu Dhabi last year.
“But I think with the little mileage I got to be in the points in the second race, is something really positive, and really good.”
Colapinto chased Fernando Alonso at one stage in the Baku race and admitted that holding off Lewis Hamilton really brought home what he has achieved in finding himself battling with multiple World Champions.
“When I started to think a bit of that was when Lewis caught me,” he said. “First, I had to keep him behind for Alex [Albon], because if he catches Alex, we were going to lose some points.
“So I tried to use the tyres again. And then suddenly they woke up. And it was that moment where I started to pull away from Lewis, and having a really, really strong pace again with those tyres that were really old.
“It was a point in the race that made me realise a bit where I was, and that was keeping Lewis behind. A proud moment. He said he was driving very well, but we managed to keep him behind, so it was very nice.”
Colapinto didn’t have an easy Sunday in Baku, spending much of the race managing tyres after he was the first driver to pit and had to do 41 laps to the flag on the hards.
“I found very tough the middle part of the race,” he said. “We were really struggling with the tyres. I managed very well the mediums in the first stint. It was very hot, and the mediums were suffering a lot, but we did a great job on that first stint.
“Then a good pit stop, but the tyres were out of the window completely. I was managing a lot the rears. I was just not sure how much I had to manage, how much I could push.
“And I think it’s part of experience, to be very close to Alonso, but I was not sure how much the tyres were going to last. I still had 25 or 27 laps to go, and I was like, really crazy to attack him now!
“I kept doing a lot of management, which the team was asking me to do. But then whenever anyone started to get close to us we stopped the management, and after Hulkenberg passed me, we started to push.
“And then suddenly the front tyres woke up again, and my front was completely open since the first few laps. My front was fully grained, and I had no grip. And then suddenly they woke up, they switched on again, and I started to get a lot of grip.
“That’s why I finished the race so strong and in very good lap times, keeping Lewis behind and pulling away and making a gap. So it was I think a very strong end to the race.”
Colapinto also praised engineer Gaeten Jago, who in a radio pep talk on the grid reminded him that it would be a long race and that there could be points as a reward.
“He’s been on it in every race, in every session that I’ve been doing,” said Colapinto. “He knows how much help I need at this stage, and how much I need the support from the team, and how much I need someone to be there helping me.
“I don’t know many, many, many things, and it’s really tough to come straight into an F1 weekend and be on it with all these things, but they are helping me to do so. I changed the mode like 25 million times this race in between walls.
“My seat was getting really hot. I was asking if there was a mode to maybe make the seat a bit colder, but there wasn’t! It was a good race, and I am still learning a lot. I’m learning to manage the car better, and just really happy to be improving every session.”
Adam Cooper F1 