Franco Colapinto admits that James Vowles “wasn’t very happy” after his huge crash in Q2 in Las Vegas – but says that the support of the Williams boss helped him to bounce back on race day.
Colapinto had his third crash in two race weekends when he went off in Q2 while trying to break into the top 10.
He was able to start the race from the pitlane in the spare chassis, and had a solid race to 13th place at the flag.
The crash added to the strain on resources that the team has experienced with the high level of crash damage this season, and Colapinto concedes that it wasn’t easy to face Vowles afterwards.
“He wasn’t very happy, but he has been always very, very supportive,” he said. “I always take out of every bad moment very positive things, and it’s every time because of James, his thinking and his mentality and his way of moving forward as a team leader and as a team.
“I think I learned a lot from him, and he has been an amazing team leader for the little time that I’ve been working with him. I know how important how all this is for him, and it also is for me.
“But when these things happen, when two tough weekends in a row happen like this, the mentality and the will to keep pushing forward, not giving up and always finding a solution to the problems is its strength, and always finding a positive thing in the negatives.
“And I think that is very important, and is what is going to move this team back to the top.”
Colapinto admitted that he took too many risks in Q2, while acknowledging that his life was made harder by Pierre Gasly being in front of him.
“When you are driving, you are going to a limit,” he said when asked about qualifying by this writer. “And I think for what the situation was in the beginning of the lap, I had to take more risks to try to get into Q3 – probably not that much!
“I tried my best, I think was difficult to manage that last run in Q2. We were very close to Gasly at the start of the lap, I did a very big gap, I did a four-second gap before starting the push. And then I think he really, really slowed down after Turn 16, after that kink to a left. And before starting the lap, he slowed down so, so much.
“I was eight-tenths behind him. It was Piastri behind me finishing the lap. I was in a very, very awkward position and really not ideal. And I started the lap eighth-tenths behind Gasly.
“So I had to take more risks than what I should have. I had a lot of dirty year in that lap, so just a tough quali for us. I think the pace was there to be in Q, or very close. So it’s tough. I think a tough day for us, because we should have been close to it into the top 10.”
Colapinto admitted that keeping out of trouble was his priority in Saturday evening’s Grand Prix.
“The idea was to have a clean race,” he said. “I think it was not ideal after such a big crash to go straight in the race. And I wasn’t feeling so comfortable the first stint there.
“I was really, really struggling with the balance. I had a lot of oversteer, very difficult to manage the tyres. And just not in a good window. I think as the car kept running and the track also kept getting a bit better, it came a bit more towards us.
“But it wasn’t feeling well at the beginning. I lost a lot of time in the first in that strategy, a lot of dirty air, and the tyres were opening very quick, a lot of graining straight away and dirty air and a lot of sliding.
“I think at the start of the race, I was taking a bit more margin,” he said. “It’s difficult after a crash to get back in the rhythm, going straight into a race start from the pit lane, it wasn’t what I wanted. But I think slowly, I started to get back in the pace.
“So I think a very difficult race to manage in terms of strategy, in terms of pit stops, of a lot graining and the degradation that we had. So we need to focus now on the next few races.”
Adam Cooper F1 