The Las Vegas Grand Prix turned out to be another difficult weekend for the team, but as we’ve shown, we don’t give up when the going gets tough.
After a hefty shunt on Friday, Franco Colapinto was cleared to race on Saturday, and his FW46 was fully repaired thanks to the incredible work of our mechanics.
However, he was to be our only racer to see the chequered flag after Alex Albon was forced to retire midway through the Grand Prix with a suspected power unit issue, all whilst sitting in a points-paying position.
Gaetan Jego (GJ), Franco’s Race Engineer, was quickly on the radio to our No43 post-race, as was our Team Principal, James Vowles (JV).
GJ: Taking the flag. Pick up rubber. It’s a shame, we tried with Magnussen. Maybe that was a bit aggressive and we had to pay the price. On Zhou, using that second overtake into Turn 1 was not needed. That cost us as we were at the bottom of the pack. But we are learning, these are good things to learn on engine management, my friend. We are learning. The race was solid, good tyre management, good work on that, definitely. Keeping the car in the window to protect the graining was good in the last stint.
FC: Yeah, I killed my fronts there, they were gone in two corners. That was a bit aggressive there. But I think we had to try.
JV: Well done, Franco. I think it was a good recovery from where we were yesterday. There’s a lot of learning on, certainly, how to use those front tyres. We’ve still got two more races to go. Well done on the recovery, I’m looking forward to finishing the season with you.
FC: Thank you to everyone in the garage. I know how hard these races have been. I think today, if we had started from where we should have started, we would have been in a better position. But that’s racing. We will bounce back stronger next week. Thank you, guys.
GJ: Thank you, mate. Especially happy you were OK today, free to race after that. That was good driving today.
Both Franco and Alex will be back behind the wheel this weekend when we head to Lusail for the Qatar Grand Prix.
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