16/09/2024
NEWS STORY
Scoring his first world championship points, Franco Colapinto hopes that F1 teams noticed his performance.
Having impressed on his F1 debut at Monza, the Argentine somewhat blotted his copybook when he crashed out of opening practice in Baku just two weeks later. Then again, he was in good company as Charles Leclerc also brought out the red flag after a disagreement with the barriers.
On the pace for the remaining practice sessions, Colapinto kept his teammate Alex Albon honest throughout, even out-qualifying the Thai driver courtesy of that errant cooling fan.
Come the race and the Argentine gave a mature performance, shadowing his teammate as he made his way through the field, enjoying a few little skirmishes along the way, and holding off Lewis Hamilton for much of the afternoon.
With Carlos Sainz joining Albon in 2025, Colapinto hopes that rival teams will have taken note of his performance.
"They showed so much confidence and trust in putting me in a seat," he said of Williams. "It was a very difficult bet, and a bet that many people didn't understand.
"But I hope to be showing what I'm capable of and that I deserve a seat in Formula 1," he added. "The idea and the opportunity that James gave me are helping me to show that.
"I am just doing a lot of work to try to learn quick," said the Argentine." I have very little mileage in a Formula 1 car, it's only two races and one free practice 1 and a few laps in Abu Dhabi last year.
"But I think with the little mileage I've got, to be in the points in my second race is something really positive and very good. So, we have to keep going, but it's a good start.
"We did a great job with the team," he smiled. "We moved up Williams in the championship and I'm very happy with the result. It's a great result for the team. Both cars in the points, P8 in the constructors' championship, both cars in the top eight. It's something unexpected and amazing for the team, for Williams, they really deserve it.
"So yeah, just very happy for what we achieved together, and we need to keep working on the future."
Meanwhile, Oliver Bearman made a little bit of F1 history in becoming the first driver to score points in his opening two races with different teams.
From Lap 17 the youngster was under pressure from Lewis Hamilton but as they moved up through the field he kept the seven-time world champion at bay.
In his pursuit of Colapinto however, on Lap 41 he was caught off guard by Hamilton though both made it into the points as a result of the late clash involving Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz and a catching Nico Hulkenberg on the hop.
"It was a tough race," said the youngster who joins Haas full-time next season. "I wasn't running in the points until the end because of the crash in front.
"The car was really fast and, in all honesty, I was really fast as well, I just lost a lot of time in the first stint just not driving very fast. I was just saving the tyres too much and that was not really necessary.
"I took too much of the experience from FP2 into the race but the track is so different in the race that you can almost forget the long runs from FP2 and start again. I put that down to experience."
Referring to his battle with Hamilton, Bearman praised the Briton for his clean driving.
"You know when you go around the outside that he's going to leave you space, which is a nice feeling," he said. "Like in Turn 1, I knew that he wasn't going to put me in a wall, which is a bit less sure with some other drivers. That's a nice feeling and it's always very clean but hard when I was racing him.
"I was really pushing hard for some laps to overtake Franco and my tyres were getting really hot," said the Briton of Hamilton's subsequent move to claim 12th. "It was exactly at that point that he pounced on me and could overtake me quite easily.
"After that, I needed a few laps and I caught him back up and was almost catching the DRS again. It's annoying that I let him overtake but you can't make little mistakes with a guy like that behind."
In the aftermath of the Perez/Sainz clash, Hamilton and Bearman both caught Hulkenberg off guard depriving the German of an almost certain points finish.
"It went green again and I managed to get him with Lewis," said the Briton. "It was an overtake. I'm sorry for him. He had a problem to lose the position also to Franco, but I'm happy to take the point."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Baku here.