Colapinto Aims for the Comeback in Singapore: 'We Want to Recover'

Franco Colapinto faces the Singapore Grand Prix with a clear objective: to recover his course. The Argentine Alpine driver arrives at Marina Bay after two weekends without points, in Baku and Sepang, which have allowed Racing Bulls to widen their advantage in the fight for fifth place in the constructors' championship. Despite the 22-unit gap, Colapinto trusts the A526's competitiveness and the team's ability to turn the situation around.

"We will take advantage of this weekend to try to recover. I think lately we have had a very good car, so it's not a car competitiveness problem. In the last race, we had the power unit penalty, so we started from the back of the grid because of that, but the pace was very strong throughout the weekend, and we were fast both with low and high fuel load," Colapinto responded when asked about his goal for the weekend.

The 23-year-old driver also highlighted the importance of beating Racing Bulls on track: "It's important that we are ahead of the Racing Bulls; we need to score more points than them, so we are working hard for that to happen," he stated. Alpine was only nine points behind its rival before the current triple header, but the gap has widened to 22 points after two races without points. Despite this, Colapinto does not lose hope: "I think everything is possible, seeing this year with the amount of things that are happening in the races and how the situation can change from one weekend to another in terms of the points a team scores, nothing is finished until it's finished. Until the last race, we are going to keep fighting for that," he said.

The Argentine trusts in the speed of the A526 to reverse the situation: "We definitely have the speed to reverse the situation, so we are going to try. Of course, now it's many points, but as long as everything is not finished, we are going to keep fighting for that," he insisted. Alpine started the season on a good foot but suffered a performance drop with the advance of Racing Bulls and Audi; however, the improvement introduced after the summer break has returned competitiveness to the team, and Colapinto hopes that it translates into points in the remaining races.

"I think we have shown to be much stronger on layouts that in the past didn't adapt too well to our car, so I think we took some good steps after this update in Zandvoort and Monza. Since then, it seems we are much stronger, so I hope we can be a little more competitive on all types of circuits," explained the Argentine. Alpine has shown especially solid performance on urban circuits, and Marina Bay could be the perfect scenario for the team to return to its best form.

Singapore's Sprint format adds an extra layer of difficulty by reducing practice sessions and forcing teams to find the right setup in less time. Colapinto knows this and understands that the first practice session will be key to evaluating the team's level at Marina Bay. The Argentine, who has already demonstrated his ability to adapt on circuits as diverse as Baku and Madrid, trusts in being able to make the most of the opportunities that present themselves; his objective is clear: to score points, beat Racing Bulls and keep Alpine's fight for fifth place in the constructors' championship alive.