Colapinto says new seat is “perfect” after painful Monza debut · F1 · RaceFans
Franco Colapinto says Williams have fixed the problems with his seat which gave him pain throughout his first race for the team two weeks ago.
The newcomer said he “never had so much pain in a race car” before his debut at Monza.
Colapinto, who replaced Logan Sargeant in the team’s line-up three days before practice began for the race, blamed an ill-fitting seat for his discomfort.
“I never drove in a carbon seat before,” he said. “It’s really, really stiff. It’s like, stiff as a wall. Even though they scan your body and it’s suited to your back it was still not fully moulded, I think, to me in some parts.
“We did a really good job with the team now and it’s fully fixed, luckily. I think it’s going to be much better. Always with a little bit of bouncing on a lap you feel it a bit more. But I think it was good.”
Having race in Formula 2 this year until his F1 debut, Colapinto was satisfied with his fitness level for his grand prix debut.
“In terms of how I train physically and how I was at for that race, I’m really happy,” he said. “The neck, that is sometimes the toughest part of F1, it reacted very well. So it means that we did a very good job on the training side. And the seat looks perfect now, so that’s very good news.”
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Williams team principal James Vowles praised Colapinto’s performance on his debut after he finished within 14 seconds of team mate Alexander Albon. Colapinto said he learned a lot from his first race.
“We were going into the race with a lot of question marks. I hadn’t done more than eight laps in a row in a Formula 1 car before that and then suddenly they put me into 53.
“It was very tough and there were many circumstances that I was not sure what I had to do. I was learning during the race and we went step by step. I think that was the most important part, to be building on during the race weekend.”
Colapinto said he made a mistake in qualifying, where he was eliminated in the first round, leaving him nine places behind Albon on the grid.
“I did a little mistake and I missed the chance to go into Q2, but it was still a very special weekend. The race was, as I said before, a lot of question marks and we did the job. I just bounced back very strong after a tough quali and I showed with the team, that gave me the trust to put me there and they are doing a lot of effort these last few races, that I could do the job.”
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