Franco Colapinto has revealed that studying Pierre Gasly’s qualifying performance at the Italian Grand Prix was key to his performance at the Madrid race, where he finished seventh after reaching Q3.
After qualifying eighth in Monza, while Gasly surprised with the poles, Colapinto felt the need to analyze the data for his improvement. In the first segment, he achieved the fourth best time, just 0.050 seconds behind Gasly, but he increased his distance in the subsequent rounds.
Colapinto admitted that «Pierre was very fast throughout the qualifying. In Q1 I was close, but he kept improving while I didn’t». This led him to delve deeper into his analysis, focusing on the areas where his teammate managed to extract more performance.
In the following week, in Madrid, Colapinto demonstrated this progression by being consistently faster than Gasly during the qualifying session, although he had to abandon his first attempt in Q2 due to a mistake in the La Monumental corner.
Colapinto described the qualifying in Madrid as «one of the best sessions» he has performed, highlighting that he managed to set very precise laps, and his qualifying in Q3 was a major achievement given the competitiveness of the Audis and Red Bulls.
In the end, Colapinto expressed his satisfaction with the race result, where they managed crucial points.
«I’m very happy. I learned a lot after Monza and applied those lessons in Madrid. I was able to maximize my performance».
In response to questions about what he learned from Gasly, Colapinto mentioned the importance of managing the car’s energy, highlighting the difference in experience between the two drivers and how this influenced his performance during the different qualifying sessions.
According to Colapinto, this improvement in Madrid reflects his effort to constantly evolve as a driver and demonstrates the potential he has to continue growing in the championship.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
SourceID: SRC_c902b7442457636c16901bf3e756948d21abd189