Kicking a rugby ball through hoops at Silverstone, Sky F1’s David Croft told Franco Colapinto he got one shot at it, before saying: “honestly it’s like a contract with Alpine”.
After his initial five-race run in the A525 alongside Pierre Gasly, Colapinto has entered a race-by-race stage in his bid to retain the Alpine race seat.
David Croft’s ‘like a contract with Alpine’ jab
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
The team has shown it’s not afraid to ring the changes if deemed necessary, having already dropped Jack Doohan after just six races to make space for Colapinto.
At the time of his promotion, his team boss Flavio Briatore gave him three rules: “He needs to be fast, not crash, and score points.
“I’m only asking him these three things — not 10,” added the Alpine executive director. “If he does them well, he’ll drive forever.”
But while Colapinto has yet to show enough speed to score points in the Alpine, and he’s also suffered one big crash, this weekend’s British Grand Prix marks his sixth race with the Enstone team.
Whether it’s also his last, only time will tell.
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His situation with the team led to be jab made in jest from Sky F1’s David Croft as the British commentator and the Alpine team-mates threw a rugby ball through hoops at the Silverstone circuit.
Croft: “Right, straight into the middle.”
Colapinto: “How many tries?”
Croft: “One.”
Colapinto: “Nooo!”
Croft: “Seriously.”
Colapinto: “Yeah?”
Croft: “Yeah, honestly it’s like a contract with Alpine, you get one shot.”
As Colapinto laughed and the crowd reacted, Croft asked: “Did I say that live?”
Colapinto still laugh: “Ok, let’s try!”
Gasly, watching on, chipped in: “You don’t need to be polite with him, he’s used to it.”
Colapinto was quizzed on his future when he spoke during Thursday’s media day ahead of the British Grand Prix weekend.
Asked how difficult it was to be ‘evaluated on a race-by-race basis’, he gave that short shrift.
“I think every time it’s race by race, you know,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, before going on to speak about the upcoming British Grand Prix.
“I’m glad to be here racing in Silverstone, it’s a great track. I love this track. It’s very enjoyable.
“And, yeah just very excited for the weekend ahead. We know it’s our home race. It’s probably a very high PU sensitivity track, so it’s not going to be easy for us, but I think we have a good car for the high-speed corners.
“It’s going to be probably rain as well, that might help us a bit. And so let’s see how it goes.”
Pressed on whether Alpine had given his ‘goals’ to retain the seat long-term, he replied: “No.
“I think in general, we are just trying to focus on doing the best job we can. We are trying to get better as a team.
“We are, of course, on my side, pushing the most to improve the aspects that I have to improve. I’m very good in the races, I’m struggling a bit more in qualifying.
“I know that there is things to find on our side, but also I think in general as a team, we need to still do a step with the car.
“We are not quite there to score points every race, that’s what we want. And I think we need to make things better on every side as well, a part of just focusing on that.”
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