Argentine race driver Franco Colapinto is set to return to action as Formula 1 arrives at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday. It\u2019s bound to be a special moment for the 22-year-old, who made his debut in the series at the same track just over a year ago.<\/p>\n
Colapinto arrives in Italy in a very different fashion from last season. Despite having a lot more experience under his belt, the mood is less hopeful and more high-stakes. Eager wonder has turned into tense pressure as the Argentine has gone from unknown quantity to fan favorite in Argentina.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old is fresh off completing his best outing<\/a> as an Alpine F1 driver, finishing 11th at the Dutch Formula 1 Grand Prix, just one shy of the positions that award points. The result came at the best possible time for Colapinto, after team boss Flavio Briatore openly questioned whether<\/a> he was ready for F1, leaving big questions over his future with the team.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were very close to securing some points as a team,\u201d he told the Alpine media team after the Dutch Grand Prix. \u201cIt was a fun race, one where I felt I drove well and, at the flag, my best finish of the season. There are many positives to take from the weekend. I feel more things on my side are coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n The Argentine later added it was \u201cnice to secure [his] best result of the season\u201d but \u201calso a little disappointing\u201d to miss out on points.<\/p>\n \u201cI made my Formula One debut in Monza last year, so I\u2019m looking forward to returning, this time with some more experience under my belt,\u201d Colapinto said. \u201cI spent some time testing with the team in Monza earlier this year and it\u2019s a track I like.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a good track for the Argentine driver to make his debut. Colapinto got to the 2024 Italian Grand Prix as a two-time winner at Monza, taking the top step of the podium during his Formula 3 days in 2022 and 2023\u2019s sprint events.<\/p>\n Onboard the Williams Racing F1 car, he completed a solid debut, qualifying 18th and moving up to 12th. Arguably his best moment of the race came when he overtook Frenchman Pierre Gasly, who\u2019s now his teammate, into the first chicane on lap 31.<\/p>\n Home to the Italian GP since 1949, Monza is known as the \u201cTemple of Speed,\u201d as its long straights and high-speed corners make it the ultimate power circuit. That leaves questions over Alpine\u2019s chances over the weekend. The team has struggled in very fast circuits, where the Renault engine\u2019s performance gap to its rivals becomes more apparent.<\/p>\n It won\u2019t be a full run in for Colapinto in this Italian GP. On Wednesday, Alpine announced test driver Paul Aron will take the wheel for Free Practice 1 on Friday. It\u2019s a regular strategy used by F1 teams, aimed at giving young drivers time on the track. In 2024, Colapinto himself benefited from it, as he took over from U.S. driver Logan Sargeant for the British GP.<\/p>\n Action at Monza is set to start on Friday, September 5, with the first practice session greenlighting from 8:30 a.m. Colapinto will take the well on the second running, starting at\u00a0 12:00 p.m., with the third and final testing running early on Saturday at 7:30 a.m. Later on Saturday, qualifying will start at 11:00 a.m., with the race set to run at 10 a.m. on Sunday. All times are Argentina times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Argentine race driver Franco Colapinto is set to return to action as Formula 1 arrives at Monza for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[136777,4199,707,4200,4292,47857,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-395750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-alpine-f1","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-franco-colapinto","13":"tag-monza","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115142913112638664","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}