Franco Colapinto is preparing to compete in the Chinese Grand Prix, the second round of the 2026 Formula 1 season, with the expectation that Alpine can show an improvement compared to its debut in Australia. The competition at the Shanghai circuit will begin this weekend and will also have the first sprint format of the
year.After a difficult start in Melbourne, the Argentinian driver stressed that completing the race with both cars was a positive aspect for the team and stressed that the team is still in the process of adapting.
“There are still a lot of things to understand, but also a lot to learn. Every lap we take, every session we complete, is very positive for the team to continue to understand different things. So it was a good learning process and a good weekend to continue understanding aspects of the car,” he said
.
However, Colapinto acknowledged that the team's performance was lower than expected after the pre-season tests in Bahrain. “We're not happy with the performance or the pace we expected to have to be in the front. We're working to understand where we're lacking speed. I think that soon we will find solutions. There are different factors in racing that we all need to improve on,” he admitted
.The driver also explained that the new cars create situations that are difficult to predict during races. “There are still a lot of problems, a lot of unknown things that come out of nowhere. We are going through that process of adapting as quickly as possible and resolving those problems,” he said.
The challenge in China will be even greater for the Argentine, who will race for the first time at the Shanghai circuit and will have very little time to adapt due to the sprint format. “It's a weekend with only one free practice on a circuit I don't know. It's very technical, with long corners and a lot of different speeds,” he explained.
"It's going to be much easier, it's a much richer circuit in energy.
Australia was an exaggerated experience of what the year is going to be like, we were running out of energy in the middle of the straight. I don't think that's going to happen here. There's a really long straight line, but the rest of the track is going to be easy to control,” he added.In that sense, he anticipated that the key will be to quickly understand the layout and management of the car. “I think it's important to adapt quickly to the car and the circuit. We have another opportunity here and we will try to make the most of it,” he said
.His look at his save with Lawson Colapinto also recalled the maneuver he staged at the start of the Australian Grand Prix to avoid colliding with Liam Lawson, whose car was stopped on
the straight line. “I was lucky and I reacted very quickly, and that's what saved the car, what saved a lot of pieces of the team and what also allowed me to complete the race and get a lot of data,”
