Franco Colapinto referred to the issues that his A526 had in the Bahrain tests: 'Typical things of new cars'

Franco Colapinto returned to action in testing in Bahrain, however, it did not go entirely as he expected. When the first hour and a half of running was completed, his A526 suddenly stopped on track and forced the deployment of the first red flag of the day. An engine issue caused Colapinto to spend more time in the garage than lapping.

After approximately one hour of work in the garage, the driver from Pilar was able to return to the track, although he did not manage to log much more running. He ended his participation at the Sakhir circuit with just 28 laps and 151 kilometers (93.8 miles) completed, the lowest total among the 18 drivers who went out on track (four did not run), and he set a best time of 1:40.330, the slowest of all. According to reports, during part of the session he ran with the speed limiter set at 301 km/h (187.1 mph), a detail that also affected his lap times.

In the afternoon, Pierre Gasly took the wheel of the Alpine and completed 49 laps and 265 kilometers (164.7 miles) covered, recording a time of 1:36.765, the eighth-fastest on Wednesday.

Once testing was over, Colapinto spoke with the media present at the circuit and referred to his car's issues. ""We had some problems with the car in the morning and, yes, I did not do many laps. It is part of testing and of the things that are inherent to new cars, so we are all learning together and hopefully we can learn from that and simply avoid it happening again"," he explained.

The young driver, who had also had limited running in Barcelona, considered it premature to draw conclusions about the behavior of the new regulations and the technical challenges of this season.

""It is different, I think that we have to wait and see. I have only a couple of days in the car and the teams' processes are different; we are choosing to try to learn as much as possible and to maximize the laps that we are doing"," he analyzed.

""I think that there is still a lot to find and a lot to improve in each team and in each car, so it is very early to say whether I like it or not"," he added.

Meanwhile, the Argentine referred to the future of the single-seater and the major change that it represents compared with last season's car. ""A lot more things are going to arrive and I am sure that is going to change a bit how the cars react and how we drive them. It is different, that is the main thing; it doesn't resemble at all what one would have expected from last year's car, but we are learning together and trying to get the most out of it"."

Alpine's schedule will continue on Thursday with Gasly at the wheel during both sessions, while Colapinto will rest and will get back into the A526 on Friday, when he will have the full day to wrap up the first week of testing in Bahrain.