Tag: Baku

Colapinto ‘showing what I’m capable of’ scoring maiden points

Second-race rookie Franco Colapinto hopes his maiden score in a difficult Azerbaijan Grand Prix is proving that he deserves his shot in Formula 1. Colapinto was parachuted into Logan Sargeant’s seat last time out in Italy, with Williams hoping its …

Second-race rookie Franco Colapinto hopes his maiden score in a difficult Azerbaijan Grand Prix is proving that he deserves his shot in Formula 1.

Colapinto was parachuted into Logan Sargeant’s seat last time out in Italy, with Williams hoping its development driver would boost its odds of scoring points in the final third of the season.

His weekend started badly, with a crash in FP1 that also cost him laps in FP2 due to ongoing repairs, but he was superb thereafter, qualifying ninth in a Williams double Q3 appearance.

The race was set to be far more difficult, with Colapinto having never raced in Baku before, but the Argentine didn’t put a foot wrong on his way to his first points for finishing eighth, just one place and 2s behind teammate Alex Albon. It immediately justified team boss James Vowles’s decision to sub him into the team on short notice, with each place on the title table worth millions of dollars in prize money.

“I think they showed so much confidence and trust in putting me in the seat,” Colapinto said. “It was a very difficult bet and a bet that many didn’t understand. I hope I’m showing what I’m capable of. The opportunity that James gave me is helping me to show that.

“[Now] I’m just doing a lot of work to try to learn quick. I have very little mileage in Formula 1. It’s only two races and one free practice and a few laps in Abu Dhabi last year, but I think, with the little mileage I’ve got, to win points in my second race is something really positive and very good.”

The double score took Williams past Alpine and up to eighth in the constructors championship, where it’s now 13 points behind seventh-placed Haas.

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“It’s a great result for the team,” Colapinto said. “Both cars in the points, P8 in the constructors championship, both cars in the top eight. It’s something unexpected and amazing for the team, for Williams. They really deserve it. I’m just very happy — very happy for what we achieved together.

“We need to keep working on the future. We just have to keep working as a team and keep doing what we are doing slowly. I think results will keep coming.”

The top-10 finish came despite an ambitious strategy requiring an early pit stop and a long 41-lap stint to the checkered flag. The Argentine said the tactics exposed his still poor understanding of how to manage the tires just two races into his grand prix career as well as his physical conditioning in the step up from Formula 2 to Formula 1.

“I think we did manage [the tires] very well, but we managed them too much,” he said. “We managed the fronts too much and I didn’t really know what was happening and why my front tire was graining like that. It’s something I found out very late in the race, and I think knowing that maybe could’ve attacked Fernando [Alonso for sixth] a bit more — it’s all part of the process and part of the learning.

“We need to keep working on the physical aspect. There are tough races coming now. This one was tough because between walls you need to keep the focus constantly all the time and be real on it.

“I guess [the next race in] Singapore will be very, very hard, but I felt great today — I felt much better than Monza.”

Piastri reveals ignored team order is ‘what won me the race’

Oscar Piastri ignored a call for patience from race engineer Tom Stallard before making his race-winning lunge to overtake Charles Leclerc for the lead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Piastri battled Leclerc hard in the opening laps of the race, …

Oscar Piastri ignored a call for patience from race engineer Tom Stallard before making his race-winning lunge to overtake Charles Leclerc for the lead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Piastri battled Leclerc hard in the opening laps of the race, believing clear air to be key to victory, but overused his medium tires in the process, dropping him to 5.9s adrift by the time he made his pit stop on lap 15. Only Leclerc’s slow laps into and out of pit lane brought Piastri back into contention immediately after the Monegasque made his stop one lap later.

The Australian was implored to take a different tack with his second chance. McLaren analyzed his used medium tires and found he’d overused them, and he’d have to be much gentler with his new set of hards to get them the 36 laps to the checkered flag. Piastri gave that idea short shrift, leaning heavily on his tires for a late-braking overtake on lap 20 to take a lead he’d never relinquish.

“I felt a bit sorry for my race engineer because I basically tried to do that in the first stint and completely cooked my tires,” Piastri said. “My engineer came on the radio and said, ‘Let’s not do that again,’ basically, and I completely ignored him the next lap and sent it down the inside.

“It’s what won me the race.”

Piastri said he didn’t see the logic in playing a patient game in behind a car that was at least a match for the McLaren.

“I think at that point I felt like trying to stay back and wait for Charles to deg was never going to happen,” he explained. “I thought he was just going to secure us P2.

“A similar opportunity [came] in the first stint. I felt like on lap two or three I was just within DRS but didn’t fully capitalize on that opportunity.

“I got to the end of the straight thinking, ‘If I had have done a couple of things a bit differently here, I maybe had a chance.’ So when I had a similar opportunity after the pit stop, I had to take it.

“[The move] was a high-risk, high-commitment … but that’s what I needed to do to try and win the race, because I wasn’t really going to be that keen to finish second.”

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He was unable to pull away from Leclerc once in first place, with the Ferrari doggedly pursuing the lead.

“I knew that getting into the lead was going to be, let’s say, 40 percent of the job, but that hanging on to it was going to be 60 percent, and I knew that I’d use the tires pretty heavily to try and get in front and I knew what kind of impact that had in the first stint,” he said.

“Just trying to keep Charles behind was incredibly stressful. I couldn’t make a single mistake. I made a couple, but at a track like Baku it’s impossible to be driving flat out and not make any. I was just fortunate that they weren’t big enough that it cost me.

“The whole 30 laps where I was trying to keep Charles behind was incredibly tough.

“I think for me that has to be one of the best races I’ve done.”

Victory is the latest big result in a strong run of form for Piastri who is the sport’s highest scoring driver over the last 11 rounds. His 25 points also helped propel McLaren to the lead of the constructors championship for the first time more than a decade.

“It’s not just down to me,” he said. “We’ve had a car that’s been very quick and consistently quick in a lot of places, and even if we’ve not necessarily been the outright quickest everywhere, we’ve been in with a chance everywhere.

“Today was definitely one of those days where we weren’t necessarily the quickest, but we had a car that could put us in the fight. We had a pit stop that could put us in the fight. We had some teamwork that put us in the fight, and it all managed to pay off.

“I feel like I’ve been driving well. It’s been clicking a bit more for me this year in terms of the things I want to work on from last season. Combine that with a car that’s capable of winning, and results like this are possible.”

Magnussen picks up one-race ban for Baku after Monza contact

Kevin Magnussen had his one-race ban confirmed by the FIA after picking up more penalty points at the Italian Grand Prix. The Dane was handed a 10s time penalty and two penalty points for causing a collision with Pierre Gasly, with the contact …

Kevin Magnussen had his one-race ban confirmed by the FIA after picking up more penalty points at the Italian Grand Prix.

The Dane was handed a 10s time penalty and two penalty points for causing a collision with Pierre Gasly, with the contact between the two at the second chicane seeing both miss the corner but continue. Magnussen has been walking a tightrope on 10 penalty points for a number of months — with 12 within a 12-month period triggering a ban — and the two given to him in Monza led to his Super License being suspended for the next race in Baku.

“On the approach to Turn 4, Car No. 20 attempted to overtake Car No. 10 on the inside,” the stewards’ explanation read. “While Car No. 20 had its front axle past the mirror of Car No. 10, the Driving Standards Guidelines specify that an overtaking car has to ‘be driven in a safe and controlled manner throughout the maneuver.’

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“The stewards determined that this was not the case for Car No. 20 and hence the driver was wholly to blame for the collision and hence the standard penalty and penalty points are allocated.”

Following that explanation, a separate document from the stewards confirmed: “The Super License of the driver of Car No. 20 is suspended for the next competition of the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship.

“Following this suspension, 12 penalty points will be removed.”

Haas is likely to promote reserve driver Oliver Bearman — who will replace Magnussen at the team in 2025 — into the seat in Azerbaijan, although that is pending final approval from Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur as he’s a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy and was due to race in Formula 2 that weekend.