BARCELONA (from a special envoy).— Franco Colapinto He did the best he could with what he had this Saturday in qualifying for the Grand Prix of Barcelona-Catalonia. He finished 13th in the standings, one place ahead of his teammate, Pierre Gaslyfor the third time since the Miami race. The two Alpine drivers complied, but the team is totally disoriented, retreating with a car that is a mystery to both its drivers and engineers.
At the end of Q2 and after not being able to enter Q3, the Argentine driver made a report to the international written journalists that was quite in-depth and realistic about the situation.
—Yesterday you said that you felt disconnected from the car, was there any improvement today?
—No, no improvement. We turned the car upside down a couple of times this weekend. The car doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t do what I want. On my Q2 lap I tried to push to get to Q3, but when I pushed, the car just doesn’t respond…I almost spun three times on my lap. I can’t get it settled and I can’t keep the tires alive for even a single lap. It’s a disaster. I tried to go with the knife between my teeth, but the car doesn’t do what I want. Tomorrow (Sunday) is going to be a really difficult day, but this whole weekend is being quite frustrating. We expected to be fighting to get into Q3 and, instead, we are suffering too much. It’s been a very frustrating weekend so far.
—Do you understand why they have not been able to find that ideal window of performance?
— No, if I could understand it we would not be in this situation. But I hope it’s not because of the heat, since it’s still We have a couple more hot races left in this European season. The truth is that this is the first very hot race after Miami, and this is a very high speed and high energy track, which is very different from Miami. I hope it’s not because of that, because we are in a different position, we are struggling more with the car and the car feels worse than before.
Colapinto responded by moving a cooling towel around his neck. He looked directly at whoever asked him in English. There were even moments when he smiled. An attitude, within everything, calm. Perhaps because the difference he made in the classification over Gasly, about 70 thousandths, being very little, has a very important meaning for him: that on the next tracks, whatever the performance of the A526, it will be at the level, if not better, than Gasly. And that, in the medium term, reinforces its stability in Formula 1. A series of “crazy” rumors speak of a return of Fernando Alonso to Renault (Alpine) in 2027, but Flavio Briatore (the team’s sports advisor) came forward and said in Montmeló that it makes no sense for his team to hire a “top driver” (“top driver” in English).
Those in front
In the fight for pole and possible victory this Sunday – starting at 10 in Argentina – the Englishman won George Russell (Mercedes), who managed to surpass a very strong Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) for only 64/1000. Charles LeclercHamilton’s Ferrari teammate, crashed into the fences in the early stages of the third part of qualifying.
Lando Norriswho had been the fastest on Friday with a McLaren that could be threatening, was fourth behind Kimi Antonelli already 229/1000. There will be two battles on the podium positions: Hamilton trying to overtake Russell at the start and Antonelli chasing the Ferrari and then his teammate. It will be hot, very hot, with a track temperature that could exceed 50ºC and destroy the tires. This worries the leading teams, but also the Alpine representatives.
Rivals escape
The outlook for Alpine and its drivers looks very dark for Sunday and the following races. The cars that were behind in the Miami race they have been ahead of them. The Racing Bulls became almost uncatchable, with Liam Lawson qualifying eighth in Q2, half a second ahead of Colapinto, and Arvid Lindbladeleventh, 351 thousandths behind the Argentine. And if that were not enough, Nico Hulkenberg either Gabriel Bortoletoone or both Audis, intruded right up ahead. On this occasion it was Bortoleto who was 12th, ahead of Franco, 191 thousandths ahead of him.
At the beginning of the day, however, both Alpine drivers believed that Friday’s poor result, Franco 15th and Pierre 16th, was going to improve a lot. This was the scenario: at eight in the morning, on the Montmeló circuit, the sun was not yet flying high enough to surpass the height of the hospitalities and the main grandstand with its rays. It was still coolalthough a temperature of 30 degrees was anticipated at the time of classification.
The paddock street, in shadows, it looked like one from a financial district on one side and an industrial estate with multicolored trucks on the other. The only hospitality, or rather, bar-restaurant open wide, was that of the teams Red Bull-Racing Bulls. Bar, restaurant, long bar; It could not be any other way because it is in that area where, preferably, the stimulating drink that gives wings to the body is consumed. Max Verstappen (but not so many to his teammates).
The mechanics of Alpine They stayed late on Friday and arrived even earlier in the morning because the team decided to change Pierre Gasly’s chassis, without penalty for allowing it by the regulations. Alpine sources had no answer to this question: Franco had his chassis changed before Miami and started to get faster. Since then, Gasly began to suffer and become disoriented with the grip and now a change has been decided for him. Is there something in the construction that has gone wrong in those structures?
Colapinto had complained on Friday about the lack of grip and balance in his car and because the tires degraded quickly in long runs with the medium compound. In any case, in the afternoon, You could see a hint of fury which many other pilots also shared. What purpose had the preseason tests on this same circuit been for? Environmental circumstances had changed, new aerodynamic elements, cars and energy management had been introduced. They were not the same at all.
From 12-14 laps with the medium compound, the yellow band, the times They degraded at a rate of 3 or 4 tenths per lap. The time of each turn increased in the round by around 4 seconds or a little more at the end of the training.
A shared problem
What happened to Colapinto and that his teammate Gasly shared also happened to Williams and Audi. With enough fuel to do a long run drill, the Alpine I was in the rhythm of the “enemies”. The result in one lap had been very poor, but when the numbers of the others were seen, one could think that, with a creative and effective solution, requested by the Argentine, the A526 could be resurrected and face the day with other vitamins. That, however, was not going to happen. And it was already glimpsed in the morning FP3.
It was 32ºC and with a track temperature of 45ºC The teams took between 10 and 15 minutes to get moving in the third free practice. Colapinto put a set of used soft ones to test sensations. Gasly stayed in the box. Armed in a hurry, adjustments were missing and there was a failure in the A526’s electrohydraulic system. With his third set of soft tires, Colapinto, at the last minute, clocked 1m 17s 625/1000, leaving him 1s 946/1000 behind the fastest. George Russell. At the last moment, Gasly took his fastest lap and clocked 1m 17s 583/1000, to be 13th, ahead of Franco by 42 thousandths, barely a breath. Far from the best, both Alpines closed the session without having corrected the rollback warned on Friday and any other attempt at improvement was going to founder in the afternoon. In the classification the Argentine would finish ahead of his teammate; both, far behind their mid-pack rivals.
Tire care, due to the high temperature that is expected to prevail in the race, will leave open a door for creative strategieseven if they are risky. In a normal start, Alpine must do a race coordinated by the team. Will you play with using two compounds, medium and hard from the beginning, or will you launch your two drivers equally shod? Pirellithe tire supplier, in its calculations said that it was necessary to stop twice but that it could also be convenient to do it three times. That was what the discussion with Gasly and Colapinto was about in the afternoon, with the sun almost falling on the Montmeló circuit. The answer, on Sunday, when removing the thermal blankets on the starting grid.
