Franco Colapinto left the Austrian GP with few reasons to smile. The Argentine could only finish fifteenth at the Red Bull Ring after a very complicated race, marked by the Alpine’s lack of rhythm. The driver himself acknowledged at the end of the test that the limitations of the car conditioned his options to fight for a better result.
Colapinto had started from sixteenth position after being left out of Q3 on Saturday. His goal was to come back and get closer to the points zone, but the A526 never allowed him to find the necessary rhythm to progress in a race. in which he once again showed the difficulties that Alpine is going through this season.
A mechanical blackout at the moment of truth
The start became the first big Sunday event for the South American runner. Far from taking positions in the peloton, Enstone’s car suddenly deflated in the initial meters, sinking hopelessly to the back of the grid. Although he paddock he speculated with a touch, the real reason pointed directly to the mechanical innards: “No one touched me, the car stopped at the exit, before leaving I ran out of power. When I reached the first corner, I ran out of momentum again. “We have to investigate what happened, because these things should not happen,” He shot firmly into the ESPN microphones.
No rhythm or weapons in Spielberg
Although the course of the laps brought some oxygen due to the abandonments of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez, the French chassis never found the optimal operating window. Completely outclassed and overtaken by his teammate Pierre Gasly, the Buenos Aires midfielder crossed the checkered flag with one lap lost to the winner George Russell: “I was last in the first corner and I didn’t have the rhythm to fight with anyone. The car was skidding a lot, it didn’t react and I didn’t have the rhythm to advance either. It was a very bad race and the weekend in general was complicated for us,” argued the driver with evident resignation.
Urgent reconstruction with an eye on Great Britain
With the setback of the Red Bull Ring already assumed in the team’s technical offices, The absolute priority is to reset the electronic and dynamic systems to prevent such a short circuit from ruining the next round of the championship: “Now we have to think about Silverstone. We must analyze what happened this weekend, solve the problems and look for a better result in the next race,” concluded Alpine’s first sword with the firm desire to rewrite his fortunes on British soil.
