Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Franco Colapinto says he is living “a dream” racing in Formula 2, despite “a lot of ups and downs” in the early rounds of his rookie campaign.
The MP Motorsport driver has enjoyed several solid races but is still to find his feet in qualifying, where he is yet to make the top 10.
“I had a good feature race [in Bahrain] and then Jeddah was a tough weekend,” he reflected. “I didn’t know the track and I just did a few mistakes, hit the wall in quali and then I compromised the weekend. But the car was really fast.
“After Bahrain the car was up there to fight for the win. I didn’t really maximise the car those few races. But we are looking to make me a bit more comfortable in the car, to understand my mistakes and to of course learn. It’s my first year in F2 and I need to do some steps.”
Even though “the progress is going well”, Colapinto is still looking to improve “many little details”.
“It’s about the details in motorsport. It’s very little differences for most of the grid. So I just need to keep understanding a bit more the car and work with the engineers a bit more. Professionalism and goes up when you go up a category,” acknowledged Colapinto, who has increases his focus but not changed his routines much from his two years in FIA Formula 3.
“That makes you focus a bit more and put a bit more work in the preparation. And I am doing so. [Being] a category higher you have to try to deliver in every moment and be up there all the time.”
The 20-year-old describes it as “a dream come true” to be competing in F2 and is pleased it happened with MP, “a family to me in motorsport”. He spent two years in Formula Regional with the Dutch outfit before reuniting with them in F3 last season.
Having third-year F2 driver Dennis Hauger as a team-mate is also proving valuable.
“Of course, it’s been helpful,” Colapinto said. “I haven’t had a very clear reference years before, but he’s up there. He was on pole in Australia and he’s fighting for wins. So it’s much more than positive to have him next to me and just learning a lot.”
Off-track, Colapinto and his management continue to pursue sponsors and especially from Argentina, where his step up to F2 generated a lot of fan interest.
“[It] is the most important to have good sponsors and good people behind you. And luckily it’s growing every year and we are doing well on that. So I’m just very happy to keep getting people around me,” he said.
“With my team, we are doing a good job on that side, which is very important to be racing. It’s very, very expensive, motorsport, and [especially] F2.”