Friday at Monza gave Franco Colapinto and Alpine exactly the kind of mixed message that can make a team feel both encouraged and annoyed in the same breath. The raw pace was there for a competitive one-lap showing, but the grip problems he flagged in Free Practice 2 were the sort of issue that can ruin a qualifying plan in a field this tight.
Colapinto ended Free Practice 1 in ninth with a lap of 1min 24.028secs, then went 11th in Free Practice 2 with a 1min 23.619secs. That is not a disaster by any stretch, but it is also not the kind of Friday that allows anyone at BWT Alpine Formula One Team to relax. At Monza, where the margins are always tiny, even a small swing in balance or grip can shuffle a driver several places in a heartbeat.
And that was the clear theme from Colapinto’s own assessment. He said Alpine had a good start to Free Practice 1 on the Medium run, where they were up near the top five, but the Softs were not clean and the car issues meant more was probably there for the taking. Free Practice 2 was harder. He pointed to a lack of grip, especially at corner apexes, and said the team needed to understand why, whether that was down to the conditions or something else.
Potential, but not yet certainty
That is the real story of Alpine’s Friday. The team said the leaderboard was tight all day, and Colapinto backed that up with his own comments about tiny improvements making a big difference to the end result. Pierre Gasly was more bullish about the overall picture, suggesting the leaderboard did not accurately reflect the car’s true performance and that there was enough potential to fight for Q3. That may well be true. But potential is not the same thing as having the thing nailed down.
The encouraging part for Alpine is obvious enough. Colapinto’s FP1 pace suggested the car can be in the mix when the run is clean, and the fact that the team expects changes before qualifying tells you there is still performance to find. The uncomfortable part is equally obvious: Monza does not reward teams that are still trying to work out why the grip disappeared between sessions.
So the Friday verdict is simple. Franco Colapinto showed enough speed to justify belief, but not enough consistency to silence the doubts. Alpine have a car with promise, yes, but in a close fight at the Italian Grand Prix, promise only matters if it survives the move from practice to qualifying.
