Colapinto rues his “rookie mistake” in opening Baku practice

Having suffered a costly crash in the opening practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Williams’ freshly-signed driver Franco Colapinto noted that the incident was down to a “rookie mistake”.

Having completed a successful F1 debut at the Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago, Franco Colapinto didn’t have the dream start for Williams at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Having been unable to catch a little snap through Turn 14, the Argentinian crashed in the opening practice to bring out the third red flag of the session. Williams mechanics had to work hard between the two sessions, but they managed to get Colapinto out for the start of FP2.

Reflecting on his incident, Colapinto said that “the crash was a rookie mistake as I was still getting to grips with the track, and everything was new. Taking that away, we had a good second session. The heroes of the day are the mechanics.

“They did an amazing job to repair my car in time for FP2. I’m proud of the team for all their efforts. I was really happy to be able to get another session under my belt to help build my confidence up. It was a small mistake but here it can cost you a lot.

“The car is in a good position and I’m feeling more comfortable lap after lap. I need to keep working to understand how the overheating and degradation works. This is still a process as it’s only my second race and it’s a street track. It’s a tough start but I think we’re doing a good job.”

His team-mate Alexander Albon had an uneventful opening day at Baku, but he insisted that Williams will need to make a few changes on his car to improve the balance for the remainder of the weekend.

“It’s been a tricky day. We haven’t been very happy with the way the car has been behaving so we’ll make some changes and, if we make the right calls, I think we’ll make a good step forward.

“The track is super sensitive with low grip and the tyres are overheating a lot. Pirelli have set the pressures really high so you can’t afford to slide the car or it damages the tyre really quickly so you really need to look after those tyres.

“It’s not fun but it’s the same for everyone. At the minute we don’t quite have top ten pace but there is definitely a lot of things we can look at tonight and then I don’t think we’ll be too bad,” concluded Albon.

Elaborating on a tough day for the Grove-based outfit, Williams Sporting Director Sven Smeets stated that the main issue has been the grip level, with the team struggling to bring the tyres into their operating window.

“In FP1 both drivers weren’t very happy with the car. There was no grip and the tyres were never operating in the right window. Franco made a mistake in his second push lap on the Soft, hit the wall and had to retire from the rest of FP1.

“The team did a brilliant job to get his car ready for FP2 and he was able to run almost the whole session. Also, on Alex’s side the team was very busy, changing many things on the car in order to find a better balance and performance.

“The hard work has paid off as the drivers were happier with the behaviour of the car in FP2 but there is still more work to do tonight, going through all the data and finding performance if we want to be fighting for points on Sunday.”