The calendar of Formula 1 will take Franco Colapinto to a venue he knows only from having watched it during his years as a spectator. After a complicated weekend in Baku, the Argentine has already begun preparing for his debut at the Sepang circuit, which will host the category for the first time since 2017, although under the name of Bahrain Grand Prix.
"This will be my first experience in Sepang. It’s a circuit I’ve heard and seen a lot about, as I grew up watching Formula 1. One thing that stands out is the weather conditions, as it’s very hot and there’s a lot of humidity, and it always seems like there are many chances of rain", Colapinto explained in an official statement from Alpine.
According to him, after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he traveled to Alpine's headquarters to work for a day in the simulator with his engineers. "I flew to Enstone after Baku, as planned, to spend a day in the simulator. It was quite a unique experience, as while we were preparing to adjust to the time zone, I was at the factory at 5 in the morning with my engineers", the Argentine recounted.
For Colapinto, the event will be affected by the penalty he carries over from Baku. The FIA stewards determined that he was "totally or predominantly responsible" for the incident he was involved in during the restart of that race, which ended up involving Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris.
The impact caused his teammate to lose control and crash into the McLaren driver, resulting in all three drivers being out of the race. Although the original penalty was 10 seconds, since the driver from Pilar could not complete the race, it turned into a five-place grid drop for the next Grand Prix.
Despite the penalty, the Alpine driver aims to build a competitive weekend from the practice sessions. "I’m really looking forward to experiencing Malaysia and the goal now is to make Friday productive, to have the car in a good setup, and hopefully be in a position to fight for the top ten again both days,” he concluded.
When Colapinto returns to racing
After his unfortunate participation in Azerbaijan, the Argentine will seek to recover next weekend at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Due to the current geopolitical tension in the Middle East, Formula 1 decided that instead of racing at the Sakhir circuit, the action will move to the Sepang circuit, Malaysia, although the competition will retain its original name due to the commercial agreements the category has with the Bahraini government. Activities will kick off on Friday, October 2 with the first free practices and will conclude on Sunday, October 4 with the main race.
Bahrain Grand Prix Schedule
Friday, October 2
