Formula 1’s newest driver Franco Colapinto said he eased himself in during his first day of running.
Colapinto received a surprise call-up to finish the season for Williams who sacked driver Logan Sargeant in the wake of his huge crash at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Having stepped up from Formula 2, the rookie took it easy on his first day in the car, covering 43 laps in total.
“It was great, I’m really happy about it,” Colapinto told the official F1 channel. “Luckily I could enjoy a lot today, more than going for lap times and all that I just tried to focus on myself, tried to enjoy the day, and it went quite well. I was quite careful in FP1, I just wanted to put the laps in.”
Colapinto said he “felt a lot more comfortable with the car” by the second practice session, where he lapped within two-tenths of a second of team mate Alexander Albon. “I was trying to find a bit more the limit and I was just nailing it a little bit more consistently and I was just a bit more confident for the high-speed [corners].
“I still miss mostly in those high-speed corners, to try and find the limit a bit more of the tyre because it’s very sensitive to the temperature. [In the] last sector the tyre is suffering a bit and I just need to understand better how it works.”
He expects he will be able to find the limit of the car more consistently once he has had more laps in the FW46. “I am quite confident,” he said, “I just need to find a bit more the limit.
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“Sometimes I over-push a little bit, sometimes I don’t carry enough speed or I don’t release the brake enough. Some laps I overshoot. So it’s about finding the limit a little bit more in the high speed.
“The tyre has a sweet spot that is very difficult to understand and if you go over that or below that it’s a very fine window. So it’s just, I think, a matter of laps and races to understand it a bit more.
“FP2 went well, I was happy with the car, we did a good step for my confidence and I did feel a lot better with the car. So a good day.”
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