Franco Colapinto explains what he’s still lacking from Alpine’s F1 car

Alpine F1 driver Franco Colapinto says he is heading to his second race weekend of 2025 in Monaco looking for more confidence in his car over one lap at one of F1’s toughest circuits.

Colapinto made his Alpine debut at last week’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, coming home in 16th after a crash cost him in qualifying and an unfortunately timed yellow flag then further hampered his progress in the race.

Colapinto’s Q1 shunt underlined that while the 21-year-old Argentinian has built up experience in the simulator and in two-year-old Alpine cars in private testing, getting a handle on the squad’s 2025 car at the absolute limit is still a work in progress.

That capacity will be seriously put to the test at the tight and technical Monaco Grand Prix street circuit this weekend, a challenge which is not lost on young Colapinto.

“I think Monaco, Baku, Singapore are very high-confidence tracks, and you need to pick up the confidence during laps or in the sessions, and it’s not very straightforward,” Colapinto realised. “Even less so for me, given that I’m still lacking a bit of that confidence with the car – that is normal after only during one race weekend. There’s a lot of pace and a lot of confidence still coming with the car.

“Here, where you are brushing the walls in every corner, you need that and I think it’s going to come after FP1 a bit more, after FP2 even more, and just keep building up like I’ve done in Imola. I started a bit far in FP1, but then got closer and closer by the end of FP3.”

Colapinto doesn’t feel like there is one particular area of driving the Alpine A525 where he is still lacking; he reckons it’s just a matter of getting seat time. “The part I’m missing is doing more races. I’ve done only one race and I have probably four hours in the car, but the other guys have done seven races already in the year, so I’m a couple of races behind.

“I haven’t done any street track yet, so just taking it step by step. And I need to build up the confidence, and that’s coming with laps. Just getting to know the car, getting used to where the limit of the car is, and I think that the only way of improving on that is driving.”

“[Coming from Williams] I have things that I liked in one team, I have things that I like on the new team. You have different experiences, and I think that’s what’s happening to Carlos [Sainz], it’s what’s happening to Lewis [Hamilton]. And they have been driving for so many years.”

“We have to do our best to calm fans down”

Colapinto was also asked about the online abuse a small minority of Argentinian fans have been subjecting his colleagues Jack Doohan and Yuki Tsunoda to, repeating his request for supporters to show respect to all drivers.

“I try to do my best to calm them down and that’s all I can do, help them understand that it’s not the right thing to do,” he said. “Of course, they have all the freedom and liberty to write what they feel and what they want but always keeping the respect and sticking to a certain line and not going over that.

“They are very passionate, but they are also very euphoric and some are a bit aggressive, that’s a reality. Yuki was completely right to be upset, as I would have been if someone blocked me like that, and I understand him. It’s just really bad for him to be receiving hate for that.

“There are different moments, not only motorsport but in sports in general, that people have to behave better and we have also to do our best as people in the sport to try to calm the people down, make them understand that they have to enjoy the sport as much as they can watching on TV or watching on the track but not inducing that lack of respect that some have.”