In the round-up: Williams team principal James Vowles praised Franco Colapinto’s performance in his Formula 1 debut.
In brief
Vowles praises Colapinto
Colapinto qualified 18th for his Formula 1 debut, took the chequered flag in 13th and was promoted one place by Daniel Ricciardo’s penalty. Vowles declared himself pleased with the newcomer’s performance.
“Franco, this weekend, given we’ve really taken him out of F2 and immediately put him in F1 – but with significant amounts of preparation behind the scenes – has done a good job,” said Vowles in a video released by the team.
As well as the front-left tyre graining problems most drivers suffered the Williams pair also had to cope with their rear tyres overheating, said Vowles. Colapinto “took it in his stride,” he said.
“He executed the race perfectly, making progress and overtaking cars. And I think had qualifying really gone to plan – and just for transparency in qualifying he was near enough within a tenth of Alex [Albon] as he went through turn seven, so very, very close – he would have been today potentially in with a chance for points. And that, for your first outing in a car, is fantastic.”
McLaughlin “couldn’t see” in Milwaukee glare
Scott McLaughlin said he had difficulty seeing into two corners at the Milwaukee Mile as the sun set during last weekend’s opening race. However the Penske driver, who won the second race, said he enjoyed the event.“I know I won, but I like this race,” said McLaughlin. “Yesterday was extremely hard. I don’t know what other drivers thought or said, whatever. I could not see into three and four. The glare from the sun was incredible, especially when the windscreen got dirty and stuff. That was a big issue for me.
“It probably made the race-ability of the track tougher down three, four compared to today because it was so hard to pick the right line. No one wanted to make a wrong move.
“I prefer this [earlier] start time. I thought we had a pretty good crowd. Unless they put some lights on, [then] it would be pretty sick. It would be awesome.”
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Links
Audi sets 'more realistic' target for F1 team (BBC)
'It definitely is the right time. The decision was well-prepared two and a half years ago. We re-evaluated it last year and we believe that F1 and Audi is a perfect fit - and it fits to our strategy and we are happy to have this project, knowing that it is ambitious and takes time.'
'Piastri clearly has no interest in Norris' world championship chances against Max Verstappen, which we'd already witnessed in Hungary when he firmly seized the lead in the first corner. The racer in me admires this attitude. That's why Piastri won championships and ended up in a race-winning F1 car.'
Palou's Milwaukee electrical problem still poses a mystery (Racer)
'We don’t know what caused it, but obviously there’s a lot of stress and everything with the hybrid system. We unfortunately had it affect us in a negative way, so we’ll figure out what happened and go on to Nashville.'
Conway labels penalty that cost Toyota COTA win 'bizarre' (Sportscar 365)
'It seemed a bit weird why we got the penalty. It seemed like a single waved yellow, and it was for a car parked on the left-hand side. To lift in a straight line… it just seems bizarre. That killed the win, really.'
Duerksen says he had pace to win Monza feature race after ‘enjoyable’ run to fifth (F2)
'I should have pitted one lap later and then it would have been perfect, then I think we could have fought for the win. The pace was very good, I could make a really good recovery, so I’m extremely happy.'
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Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
😳😳😳
Sébastien Buemi received a 30 second-stop-and-go penalty and 2 penalty points on his licence following this move.
#WEC #6HCOTA pic.twitter.com/77yyfUUmxC— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) September 1, 2024
Had to make our way to the podium! +11 spots in 2 laps? We were on a mission from the start. Here is what it looked like from my perspective! @juncoshollinger #indycar pic.twitter.com/0CDod7ivB0
— Conor Daly (@ConorDaly22) September 2, 2024
Very respectable effort by @francolapinto on his debut, I thought. Less than 14 seconds off @alex_albon compared to 33 seconds (including a five-second time penalty) for @logansargeant in the same race last year.#F1 #ItalianGP #RaceFans
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) September 2, 2024
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Comment of the day
@Bullfrog was dismayed by the standard of driving from some in last weekend’s World Endurance Championship race:
Not enough ‘hyper-drivers’ around for all these cars – several are driving them as if they’re in F3. You can’t win a six-hour race on the first lap!
It used to be the experienced, patient forty-something drivers in sportscars while the young ‘uns charged around (flat-out, on race-able tyres) in F1. Now it’s the other way ’round…
@Bullfrog
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Tim C!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
3rd September 2024, 6:01
I think he did a great job, not just “good”. He was racing in F3 only last year. He was thrown into the sea but felt comfortable with that from the beginning. He was tasked to pit only once having not even completed a 8 laps stint and he made it work.
Sham (@sham)
3rd September 2024, 6:28
Agreed – he did a thoroughly good job. I didn’t see or hear of any mistakes during the race, and he made up places through the event.
Gotta be happy with that as a debut.
Deerhunter
3rd September 2024, 6:44
Yeah, I honestly wouldn’t put too much stock into Colapinto’s admittedly great race last Sunday.
De Vries too, shined in Monza a couple years back, and Ricciardo’s very unlikely win also came at the same track.
I’m not sure why, but this particular track seems to have a tendency to provoke this kind of “once in a blue moon” performances.
I’d love to see him try to make the best of his limited time though. The only Argentinian I’ve only ever seen in F1 is that one guy who drove for Minardi that one time.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
3rd September 2024, 7:12
Gaston Mazzacane? He had a season for Minardi and a few the following year for Prost, and is as far as I remember the last Argentinian to race in F1 before Colapinto. Esteban Tuero also raced for Minardi a season or so before.
SteveP
3rd September 2024, 7:26
Weirdly, when I did a look up for Tuero (didn’t recall) the name before that I did recall: Fontana.
I say weirdly as Tuero has 16 starts and Fontana only 4 – what did Fontana do that made him memorable?
Red Andy (@red-andy)
3rd September 2024, 7:49
He held up Jacques Villeneuve during the 1997 title decider. Fontana was driving for Sauber (a Ferrari customer at the time) and it was heavily rumoured that he had been instructed to make life difficult for Villeneuve while allowing Schumacher to lap him easily.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
3rd September 2024, 7:55
Fontana himself said that he was ordered to block Villeneuve, which both teams deny.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
3rd September 2024, 8:37
@hunocsi Not sure why Ferrari felt the need to deny that, when Williams and McLaren had an open agreement that they would help each other in the final race if it came to that.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
3rd September 2024, 8:22
He beat a bunch of stars including Ralf Schumacher and JarnoTrulli to the German F3 title before a massive shunt at Macau. That probably stopped his momentum, he was looking great before that.
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd September 2024, 8:14
@red-andy – Maccazena is indeed the last before Colapinto.
Deerhunter – Only Colapinto for me.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th September 2024, 10:54
There’s a lot of mistakes in the way you wrote mazzacane, hope that’s autocorrect related.
SteveP
3rd September 2024, 7:18
I’m assuming that was not any kind of dismissal of Argentinian drivers, and just that you hadn’t actually seen them in action. Most people will just go “Fangio” and say no more, but there were others. The one you recall is Mazzacane.
Reutemann was my teen years (and a bit) and Fangio stopped driving before I could have seen him in action.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th September 2024, 10:56
Indeed, curiously some countries had really strong drivers back in the 50s and then no more, at least this goes for argentina and italy, no one was anywhere near fangio’s and ascari’s level after that.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
3rd September 2024, 8:23
Franco’s very calm and collected. I’d not be surprised if he followed this race with equally strong performances
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
3rd September 2024, 7:52
I think looking at the whole quote Vowles wasn’t saying that Colapinto’s qualifying was fantastic (he did make a mistake after all), but his weekend performance overall.
Maisch (@maisch)
3rd September 2024, 8:07
Im impressed, well behaved on track and not that for off Albons pace, hard to tell whether he could develop to be fast enough, but it was a great start at least.
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd September 2024, 8:19
He indeed had a good clean race & weekend overall apart from the second Lesmo error & he also did some decent overtaking, ultimately finishing six positions higher than where he started (via Ricciardo’s ten-second time penalty), so not bad for a GP debutant, especially with limited preparation time.
However, as pointed out above, Monza as a single circuit can be misleading.
Therefore, the upcoming rounds will better demonstrate his potential over this nine-round stint.
kpcart
3rd September 2024, 13:18
Monza is a track the same às any track, with 20 of the worlds best drivers on the grid.. I don’t understand why you people think a good performance there is misleading… If it were an easy track, the best stillcome out on top. It was a very credible performance by a rookie thrown into the deap end. Like Keith wrote, he finished much closer to Albon than Sargeant did last year at the same track with much less F1 experience. This forum has been inundated with sad doubters.
An Sionnach
3rd September 2024, 18:24
It’s because there are other tracks that are a different shape and they’re harder to drive. Just ask Oscar about Zandvoort.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th September 2024, 11:00
It’s just that it happened quite a few times over the years, I hope you wouldn’t call ricciardo’s 2021 season good, but he was excellent at monza and won on merit, was looking like he would win even before hamilton and verstappen crashed, and ofc you have de vries, it would be interesting if someone could make another recent example of 1-off performances in other tracks.
Monza in particular is the temple of speed, there’s not many corners.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
3rd September 2024, 10:52
Nobody let Buemi on the dodgems at a funfair if there’s kids around. There will be tears and witness statements everywhere.
MichaelN
3rd September 2024, 14:42
Toyota is really not having a great time, are they? It was all fun and games when they were the only serious team, but now? Repeated complaints from the suits about BoP, Buemi doing a poor man’s Schumacher impression without having the skill to do it properly and thereby straight up breaking one of the most fundamental rules in all of FIA racing (don’t crowd others off), and Conway not caring about yellows for a stranded car and even falsely claiming it doesn’t matter in a straight line. Sounds like Magnussen isn’t the only driver in need of a time-out to reflect on their recent choices.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
3rd September 2024, 20:18
I’m guessing the drivers and their families involved with the Williams Driver Academy will be greatly encouraged by Franco’s promotion to F1.