For the first time since the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, Formula 1 saw a driver make their grand prix debut last weekend in Monza.
After Williams finally ended the Logan Sargeant experiment after more than a year-and-a-half, they called up junior driver Franco Colapinto to take his place.
But the 21-year-old would not face an easy entry into Formula 1. With Monza being such a strong track for Williams in recent years, the team were relying on their new driver to make progress from the 18th position he had qualified in.
For his first grand prix as well as the eight to follow, Colapinto had Gaetan Jego as his race engineer – inheriting the same engineer that both Sargeant and Nicholas Latifi had in their ears during their time with Williams. Before Colapinto’s first ever F1 start, the team had some apparent problems firing the car up. But the driver himself was more concerned with finding shade from the hot sun.
Colapinto’s Italian Grand Prix radio messages
Jump to:
“No, it’s not working”
“Watch out for Stroll”
“On previous lap, you braked too late”
“You might be just unsafe so be ready”
“You’re doing really good”
“I feel what Alex also saw yesterday”
“Let’s go for Bottas”
“Currently racing Alonso”
“I’ve never had so much pain in race car before”
“No, it’s not working”
| Lap: 1/53 COL: 1’35.885 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jego | We have a problem on our side to power up. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jego | And try again, please. Try power up. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jego | It’s not, err… So five minutes then to go. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jego | No… No, it’s not working… [The car fires up] Oh! There you go. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jego | Okay, Franco, follow the instructions from the guys, I need to go. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Colapinto | Copy, copy that. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jego | Okay, Franco, I think we’re back under control. I’ll let you know. The number before the last fire update is at 90 seconds. You will need to have pit limiter ‘off’ and only switch it ‘on’ after the last power up. So taking care it should be ‘off’ now. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Colapinto | Yeah, can I have an umbrella or something? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jego | You will have an umbrella soon, yes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Once the car was ready to go, the formation lap was about to begin. Jego gave his driver some last minute words of encouragement to try and settle the nerves before he finally achieved his lifelong dream of becoming a grand prix driver.
| Jego | So that’s two minutes 30. Tyres, cars around you, majority is on hard. There’s only Zhou, P20 behind, on medium. Gasly P14 ahead on… |
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