🇧🇪Franco braved the storm until the finish line at Spa 2025 💙

Unpredictable weather, promising pace signs and data to build on

Published

28 Jul 2025

Est. reading time

4 min

Belgian Grand Prix – Circuit de Spa‑Francorchamps 🇧🇪

📆 Date: 27 July 2025 📍 Location: Spa‑Francorchamps, Belgium 🌧️ Weather: Heavy rain at the start, then mixed/dry track 👥 Attendance: Around 500,000 spectators

📊 Provisional Quali: P17, moved up to P15 due to penalties to other drivers 📈 Final result: P19 🛞 Pit stops: Lap 12 (mediums), Lap 28 (mediums) ⏱️ Fastest personal lap: 1:46.104 (lap 30)

🏆 Race Results

🥇 P1: OSC (McLaren) 🥈 P2: NOR (McLaren) 🥉 P3: LEC (Ferrari) 🔟 P10: GAS (Alpine) 🇦🇷 P19: COL (Alpine) ❌ DNF: none

📝 Race Summary

You can still watch the full broadcast we made to review Franco’s entire weekend here. Franco Colapinto started from P15 after gaining two places due to penalties that forced other drivers to start from the pit lane. The start of the race was delayed by over 80 minutes due to heavy rain, and it finally began behind the Safety Car. As the laps went by, the track began to dry, which led to a reassessment of tyre strategy. Franco started on intermediates and made two pit stops to switch to medium (yellow) tyres: first on lap 12 and again on lap 28 to cover a move from Sainz. According to Franco and the team, it wasn't the most effective decision. He particularly stood out on the straights during the race, reaching a top speed of 321 km/h, the third-fastest speed recorded in the speed trap.

🔍 What is the 'speed trap' in F1?

The speed trap is a specific point on the circuit—usually on the longest straight—where a radar records each car’s top speed. - It has nothing to do with penalties or speed limits. - It’s used to analyse the cars’ performance in terms of aerodynamics and engine power. - At Spa-Francorchamps, the speed trap is located on the Kemmel Straight, one of the fastest sections of the calendar.

Franco showed solid pace in key sections: P5 in Sector 1 and P3 in Sector 3, though he lost some time in Sector 2 (P11), which features more technical corners.

📸 Check out our gallery of photos from the Belgian GP:

🛠️ Weekend Details

Free Practice

- Only one Practice for this weekend: he did 21 laps, and his best time was 1:44.847. - He mentioned it was a tricky session due to the car’s balance and grip.

Sprint Qualifying

- 6 laps, best time 1:43.587. - P19 on the grid for the Sprint.

Sprint Race

- Started from the pit lane (due to component changes), ran on new soft tyres. - Finished P19, best lap: 1:47.944.

Race Qualifying

- Time: 1:42.022. - Qualified P17, promoted to P15 for the race after other drivers’ penalties.

👀 Incidents and Safety Car

🚨 Safety Car at the start due to extreme rain. ✅ Franco: No incidents or penalties.

📊 Sector Times and Speed Trap

- Sector 1: 30.602 (P5). - Sector 2: 46.915 (P11). - Sector 3: 28.436 (P3). - Speed trap: 321 km/h (P3). - Fastest lap: 1:46.104 (lap 30, on medium tyres).

📻 Team Radio

Radio messages were focused and strategy-oriented, adapting to the changing weather. Alpine opted for a low downforce setup, which helped on the straights but made handling trickier in the wet. Franco stayed focused all race long, showing commitment and determination.

🌟 Overall Assessment

Franco completed another F1 race under very challenging conditions. While the final result wasn’t ideal, he showed consistency, strong pace in key sectors, and a professional approach throughout. It was great to see him finish the race at a demanding circuit like Spa, always a challenge for any driver. This experience will provide valuable data for his ongoing development with Alpine.

🗣️ Franco’s words

“It was a tough and long race for us. Given the conditions, there were always chances starting from P15 after others started from the pits,” Colapinto said. “The track was very wet at the beginning but got better. We used a low-downforce rear wing to help with straight-line speed, which worked in certain phases. The first stint was solid, we caught the cars ahead, but later with the medium tyres we struggled to keep pace in traffic.” Despite the difficult day, he stayed positive and gave a shout-out to his teammate: “Well done to Pierre for scoring that point for the team.”

🗓️ Next race:

The season continues right away: next weekend is the Hungarian Grand Prix – Hungaroring 📍 Budapest, Hungary 📅 1–3 August 🏁 Race: Sunday at 15:00 🇭🇺 / 14:00 🇬🇧 / 10:00 🇦🇷

📲 Follow all exclusive content from the Hungaroring only on the FC43 app

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🙌 It may not have been the dream result, but Franco keeps gaining valuable experience in the world’s top racing category.

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