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🇬🇧 Franco’s Report – 2025 British Grand Prix

Technical issues prevented his race start, but he left a positive impression on the team

Published

10 Jul 2025

Est. reading time

4 min

🏁 Franco Colapinto and his race at Silverstone

British Grand Prix – Silverstone Circuit

📆 Date: 6 July 📍 Location: Silverstone, United Kingdom 🌤️ Weather: Intermittent rain 👥 Attendance: Over 500,000 spectators across the weekend

🏆 Race Results

🥇 P1: Lando Norris (McLaren) 🥈 P2: Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 🥉 P3: Nico Hülkenberg (Kick Sauber) P6: Pierre Gasly (Alpine) ❌ DNF: Colapinto, LAW, BOR, HAD, ANT

📝 Weekend Summary

Franco had a stronger Friday than in his previous five Grands Prix. Saturday brought a difficult qualifying session that left him in P20.

For Sunday’s race, Colapinto was aiming to fight his way up from the pit lane in a race where weather conditions were expected to change. However, a technical issue stopped him from starting the race: his Alpine was stuck in gear and, despite several attempts from the team, the car didn’t leave the box.

It was a frustrating end to a weekend in which Franco had shown good pace, strong adaptation, and clear communication with his race engineer. As he pointed out himself, it was a day where gains were possible – something several other drivers proved on track.

Despite not being able to start, the Argentine followed the race from the sidelines, taking away important learnings and highlighting the great result from GAS, who finished sixth at Alpine’s home Grand Prix.

🛠️ Weekend Details

Free Practice Sessions FP1: 18 laps – Best time: 1:29.345

- Tested different braking modes and torque delivery. - Received positive feedback for car control in slow-speed corners. - Practised starts and simulated a pit stop without fully stopping.

Key quote: “I’m happy with where we are."

FP2: 21 laps – Best time: 1:28.442

- Started with a good feeling but felt less confident in some corners due to wind. - The team asked him to manage the front-left tyre in particular. - Analysed performance differences compared to GAS in corner entry and exit.

Discussed with the team: “The car felt very good at the start” and “Very happy with that approach”.

FP3: 17 laps – Best time: 1:32.781

- Condiciones de pista mixtas por la lluvia. - Trabajaron en la simulación a clasificación con neumáticos intermedios (amarillos).

Qualifying

- Q1: 1:39.114 (ended with an incident that triggered a red flag). - Final result: P20.

Race

- Power unit change after the crash → started from the pit lane. ➡️ Started from the pit lane because of the adjustments, but was unable to begin the race (DNS).

👀 Incidents and Safety Cars

🚨 Safety Car: Yes, twice due to rain and incidents. ⚠️ Virtual Safety Car: One at the start of the race. ❌ Retirements: Colapinto + LAW + BOR + HAD + ANT.

📻 Team Communication

Franco’s communication with his engineer on Friday and Saturday was solid, strategic and smooth – creating high expectations for race day before the unexpected technical failure.

Communication during the race start was technical and focused on emergency procedures. When the fault was detected as the race began, the team tried several recovery processes without success. The root cause wasn’t clear at the time and was investigated during the race.

🗣️ Franco Colapinto’s Statements

“I was really looking forward to today’s race, so it was disappointing not to be able to get out there and try to make up for the result yesterday in conditions that opened up a lot of opportunities,” Franco said after the race.

“It was not clear what the issue was at the time. We tried a few things to get going again, but in the end, we had to retire the car. As a racer, days like today are when you want to be out there.”

Showing his usual positive spirit, he added: “It was a good weekend in terms of learnings and well done to Pierre and the team for scoring points at our home race.”

With two weeks before the next Grand Prix, Franco shared that he’ll now head back to Enstone to continue working with Alpine ahead of the final push before the summer break.