The Baku street circuit left mixed feelings for Franco Colapinto at the start of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. After a challenging first practice, the Alpine driver managed to significantly improve his position in the second session, although he still hasn't found the performance and confidence he seeks before qualifying.
The Buenos Aires native finished 18th in the FP1 and managed to recover in the next session to place 11th, with a best lap of 1m45s479. Nevertheless, he was six tenths behind his teammate Pierre Gasly, who finished seventh.
Beyond the improvement in times, the Argentine acknowledged that the behavior of his car still does not convince him. In a conversation with journalist Juan Fossaroli for ESPN, he explained: "We're missing a bit. I think the track improvement is helping us a bit. At first, it was dirtier too, and I think it was worse for our car. Now it's better, we took a small step with the car, so a little better, but there's still work to do and I don't feel very comfortable, so I'll try to understand a bit tonight why".
Regarding this, Colapinto stated: "I'm not very consistent like in other races, and I'm struggling to extract everything from the brakes and the corner entries, which is where I'm having a bit of trouble, so I'll just work tonight and improve". Finally, when asked about his goals for the remainder of the competition, the Pilar native was clear: "Q3 and points".
The task for Alpine in the coming hours will be to analyze the information gathered in both sessions and seek a setup that allows the Argentine to feel more confident with the car. The goal will be to take another step forward when it comes time to compete in the qualifying.
When Colapinto will race again
After his brilliant performance on Spanish soil, the Argentine will now travel to Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Due to the fact that Sunday, September 27, is Memorial Day in that country, in memory of those who fell during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the action will be moved up 24 hours: the competition will start on Thursday, September 24, with the first free practices and will conclude on Saturday, September 26, with the main race.
In his previous appearances at the urban circuit of the capital of the Asian country, the Pilar native had very different results. In 2024, when he was still part of Williams, he finished eighth, earning his first points as a Formula 1 driver, while in 2025, already with Alpine, he finished in 19th place out of 20, largely marked by the poor performance of his car that year.
Schedule for the Azerbaijan GP
Thursday, September 24
