Franco Colapinto criticized by Bottas for being too slow during the warm-up lap
The Argentine, who replaced Logan Sargeant, experienced an interesting first race punctuated by a thirteenth place, without making any mistakes, at least during the race since just before arriving at the grid, he slowed down a lot, which provoked the anger of the drivers who were behind him, especially Valterri Bottas.
It’s a weekend he will remember. The Argentine Franco Colapinto, former Formula 2 driver, took part in his first Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Monza circuit. Despite the pressure, the Williams driver had a solid weekend, even though his lack of experience led him to make some mistakes, such as during his last attempt in Q1 where he sent his car into the gravel, preventing him from improving his time.
Finally eighteenth on the starting grid, just ahead of the two Saubers, the former MP Motorsport driver hoped to achieve a good result in his first race. Nevertheless, even before the start, as the drivers were lining up on the grid, a situation involving him was criticized by many onlookers and even some drivers, such as Valtteri Bottas.
Martin Brundle, commentator at Sky Sports, did not particularly appreciate the slowness with which the last drivers positioned themselves on the starting grid, as was the case with the Argentinian, which forced the first drivers to wait for them and caused a drop in the temperature of their tires and engines. They have to stay at the front of the grid for a long time, and the problem they had last week in Zandvoort is that they couldn’t get enough heat into their rear tires, and a long wait on the front line won’t help with that for McLaren.
Indeed, in the images provided by Formula 1, the last drivers had barely passed the last corner when the McLarens were already positioning themselves on the starting grid. An excessive wait for Brundle, who added: « It’s taking too long. We really need to talk about this during the drivers’ briefing, as the last line is taking too much time to position itself.” Finnish Sauber driver said that this situation was caused by Franco Colapinto, who was simply too far from Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, positioned just in front of him on the grid. Since overtaking is prohibited during the formation lap under heavy penalties, the two Sauber drivers were therefore forced to significantly slow down. Talking to his engineer Steven Petrik, Bottas simply revealed that the Argentine driver « was too slow ».
However, the FIA did not even bother to open an investigation into this incident, as article 44.8 of the regulations is quite vague regarding the maximum distance between cars during the formation lap. It simply states that « during the formation lap, practice starts are prohibited and the formation must be maintained as tight as possible. » For Bottas, these conditions were not met, which is why he reported this issue to the race direction, hoping for a penalty for the Argentine driver.
Regarding Colapinto, the Finn remarked: « Yes, I don’t know why the gap was so big. Obviously, it’s his first time, but I’m sure he will learn from this. I reported it because we could gain a position if he received a penalty. That’s the game. » However, his request was not accepted, and Colapinto was able to complete his race quietly, which he finally finished in a fine twelfth place. On his part, Bottas finished sixteenth in the Italian Grand Prix, more than one lap behind the winner, and is still looking for his first point this season.
