Argentine race driver Franco Colapinto said he had “the worst trifecta” of his career after being forced to retire from the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix on Sunday. It was his second retirement in the last three races after his crash in the Azerbaijan GP, with a point-less 13th place in Malaysia.
The retirement in Singapore occurred on lap 30, when Colapinto was running 12th and waiting for an opportunity to move closer to the points zone. He had already failed to finish the sprint race on Saturday due to another technical problem.
“They were very harsh weekends; I’m not going through the best of times,” the 23-year-old said, adding his car “barely moved forward” due to a transmission problem. “We need to understand what happened; it’s a shame to have two issues in two races.”
“We need a personal and technical reset,” he insisted, as the team looks to build some momentum towards the United States, Mexico and Brazil GPs starting in two weeks’ time. “It will be tough, but there are plenty of opportunities; we have to turn this bad moment around.”
Alpine team boss points towards regaining reliability
Colapinto’s feelings were echoed by Managing Director Steve Nielsen, who aimed to regain the car’s dependability as a key factor going forward, in addition to improving its performance.
“We also need to understand what caused us to stop twice on track this weekend,” he said after the race. “Reliability has been a strong point of ours this season, and it is important we get back on top of it to ensure we have two cars in the fight and competing for points.”
Ahead of his retirement at the Azerbaijan GP, Colapinto had racked up 29 races without failing to finish, which was, at the time, the longest among active F1 drivers, a testament not only to the driver’s consistency but also to Alpine’s dependability.
Nielsen said that what made him and the rest of the team “optimistic” is the car showing “good pace” and “generally working well at most tracks.”
“I think we can approach each of the coming races in a positive mindset knowing we can fight for points and hopefully start chipping away and reduce the gap to our rivals, which remains our objective for the remainder of the season,” he added.
What comes next for Colapinto and Alpine?
The next three races will bring the Argentine driver a little closer to home, with the U.S. GP at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on October 25, followed by the Mexico GP at the Hermanos Rodríguez Autodrome in Mexico City on November 1st and the Brazilian GP at the Carlos Pace Autodrome in Sao Paulo.
Colapinto has plenty of good memories at Austin, where he earned his second-ever points finish with Williams Racing back in 2024, while the Latin American crowd at Mexico and, particularly, Brazil make it a proxy home race for the 23-year-old.
“The next triple header is a part of the year I look forward to the most, where we race in the Americas, closer to home, and I can really feel the energy of the fans,” he said. “We will keep pushing and won’t give up on our objective as a team.”
La entrada Colapinto completed his ‘worst trifecta ever’: What comes next? se publicó primero en Buenos Aires Herald.