Franco Colapinto’s dream F1 start rolls on in Austin at United States Grand Prix

AUSTIN — Franco Colapinto’s meteoric rise in Formula 1 shows no sign of slowing down.

After a tough Saturday for the young Williams driver, Colapinto bounced back with an impressive performance in Sunday’s United States Grand Prix, capturing tenth place and another hard-fought point for Williams. Over just four F1 Grand Prix starts, Colapinto has a pair of points finishes, and his lowest finish was a P12 in his debut at Monza in the Italian Grand Prix.

After the race, Colapinto told the media, including SB Nation, how happy he was to have a bounceback performance for a team that endured a “tough” Saturday.

“I am happy,” began Colapinto. “It was a very tough Saturday for us. And I think we knew that we had the pace in the car to be strong and to do a good race. That’s why, so I decided to start on the hard [tires], to have a bit of clean air.

“I thought maybe it was not ideal, but I knew that having the pace that we had, it was it was gonna be better for us,” continued Colapinto. “And to be honest, first, when we were in clean air, on the hards, we were really strong.

“And then once we put the mediums [on], we were flying.”

Colapinto appreciated the ability of the entire team to come back strong after that difficult day Saturday.

“So it was great to see, you know, how we [bounced back] today and how we came back stronger after a very difficult day yesterday. And it was a tough Saturday for the team. “

The young driver also enjoyed his first taste of an F1 Sprint weekend, and outlined how this was a good learning opportunity for him. He’ll get his second F1 Sprint Race weekend soon at the São Paulo Grand Prix at the start of November.

“It was busy, you know, you get quite burned out, and it’s something I need to manage it more, the timings,” Colapinto said. “I need to manage it more the free times, and try to really more relax in the moments that I can be. Because it is very busy. You are under a lot of pressure all the time and just need to try and understand how to manage that better in Brazil.

But I think it was a good experience to try and learn now, first of course here in Austin, and be stronger in Brazil.

Now Colapinto can turn his attention to next weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, which will be his first race in a Spanish-speaking country.

The young driver cannot wait.

“Yeah, it’s gonna be amazing,” began Colapinto.

“Of course they have [Sergio Pérez] there, but I know that there are going to be many Argentinians. I mean, Argentinians here this weekend, it was insane.

“When we were going on the truck, on the track and doing [the driver parade] everyone was like ‘What? How there are so many Argentinians?What’s happening?’ And [the fans] were like, yelling, ‘Franco! Franco!’ I was like, ‘wow, this is very impressive.’

“Very nice to see.”

Now Colapinto wants to deliver for those fans at the next two races.

“And my job is to do my thing on the track, and I’m gonna try to show how much I care to the fans to be there, and I’m gonna enjoy, of course my first race in Brazil, but also in Mexico next weekend.”