Perez welcomes Colapinto’s consistency in Singapore

It’s another successful weekend for Franco Colapinto. The former Formula 2 driver once again demonstrated his talent behind the wheel of the Williams, on a track that was difficult and unfamiliar to him. In qualifying, the Argentinian secured 12th place, just seven hundredths behind his teammate Alex Albon. Despite the fact that the latter had the new upgrades on the car, unlike Colapinto.

During the race, the 21-year-old driver made an excellent start, gaining several positions at the first corner to move up to ninth place. Unfortunately, a poorly optimized strategy by the Grove team caused him to fall back to eleventh place, behind Alonso and Pérez, who were able to pass him due to early pit stops. Nevertheless, the Mexican driver praised Colapinto’s consistency and regularity during their on-track duel.

Pérez impressed by Colapinto’s defense

Before the pit stops, Franco Colapinto was ahead of Sergio Pérez. Although the Mexican seemed faster, he never managed to overtake him, resigning himself to wait for his own pit stop on the 28th lap to take the lead. Frustrated but admiring, the former Racing Point driver did not hesitate to compliment his opponent: “He’s very good, hard to overtake,” exclaimed Pérez on the radio during the race. “He had a fantastic race. He didn’t make a single mistake. It was very difficult to keep up with him at that time, and the race was really tough.”

Finally, Pérez managed to overtake Colapinto thanks to an undercut, stopping before him at the stands to come back out just in front of the Argentine. Without this strategy, the Mexican admits that he would have struggled to pass him on track. At the end, we managed to perform the undercut on him, but it was the only possible move. Trying to cover this strategy, Williams compromised Colapinto’s race. By stopping one lap after Pérez, he came back out behind him and Alonso, which prevented him from moving up in the rankings. Even though he tried to make up for this mistake, Colapinto was never able to overtake, finishing less than two seconds behind Pérez.

A nevertheless unsatisfactory result

Upon arrival, the Argentinian driver nevertheless seemed touched by Pérez’s compliments, explaining that he had always admired the Mexican when he watched F1 on television as a child. “Checo is a great guy, and I grew up watching him race in F1. I used to wake up early in Argentina to support him. As a Mexican pilot, he was the closest to us. It was nice to support him when I was little. And now, it’s even better to race against him.”

Despite these praises, frustration was palpable in Colapinto, aware that Williams missed an opportunity to score points, especially with his teammate Albon’s retirement. It’s a shame not to have finished in the points after a good effort. But well, that’s how it is. The race was okay, but we made mistakes that prevented us from finishing in the points. When we do everything perfectly… we were not perfect today, and I think that’s why we are not in the points.

With three weeks of break coming up, each driver will have time to recharge before facing an intense program. Two sets of three consecutive races and three more sprint races await the teams before the end of the season.