Alpine driver Franco Colapinto faced a major setback during Q1 of the British Grand Prix qualifying session at Silverstone. The Argentine driver spun out at high speed, causing him to slide into the gravel and clip the barriers.
Colapinto lost the rear of his Alpine A525 F1. Restarting the car, he then had to pull over at the pit exit, triggering a red flag when there were 6:49 minutes to go. He said on the radio, “I lost the rears,” when interim team principal Flavio Briatore was seen covering his face with his hands.
Qualifying in 20th place for Sunday’s race, here’s what Colapinto said after ending his run:
“Yeah, I just lost the rear in the last corner, and I clipped the wall.
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“I’m still struggling. So, a bit of a pity. We started running a lot with the car to improve a bit.
“We found a lot of things. I think we can work to make me feel a bit better with the car, closer to Pierre. But of course, we are still far, so we need to do a couple of steps for the next races.”
When asked if the tricky weather conditions led to the incident, Colapinto said:
“There was quite a bit of rain from Turn 15 onwards, and I think that made it a bit… yeah, I don’t really know. I didn’t see, I just went.”
He added:
“I think I just went on the curb and then the rear… maybe it was a bit— I don’t really know. I have to watch.”
Given his performance concerns in the recent races, he was asked if there were concerns about not being in the car for the next race at Spa Francorchamps. Colapinto said:
“I’m not very concerned. Of course, there are always talks, but I just need to keep working and trying to get the team to improve the car. Today was not ideal. We made some good steps.”
When asked about the setup on his car, the Alpine driver said:
“It works with… now, I don’t really know at the moment if it’s going to work in the race. We’ll try to, of course, make some steps forward for the race tomorrow and try to make something happen.”
Colapinto was the only driver to have spun out during qualifying. Max Verstappen went on to secure pole position for the British Grand Prix, followed by McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in P2 and P3.