Franco Colapinto was running at the sharp end of the field in the Italian Grand Prix before a mistake ended his hopes of fighting for a podium, although he recovered to finish ninth and salvage points for Alpine.
The Alpine driver started seventh and gained a place at the start after an incident involving Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton sent the latter tumbling down the order. Colapinto then moved up another position when Leclerc crashed at the end of the second lap before overtaking Oscar Piastri moments later, only for the race to be red-flagged shortly afterwards.
Colapinto lined up fourth for the second start and immediately made his move on Max Verstappen, passing the Red Bull driver into the first chicane to briefly move up to third. Verstappen hit back on the run down to the Variante della Roggia, retaking the position.
But just metres later, Colapinto lost control of his Alpine through the Lesmo corner and ran into the gravel, dropping all the way down to 16th.
"I had a great opportunity and I didn't take it, so I'm sad, really sad about that. I think it could have been a great race, and that was a big mistake. I missed a very important opportunity for the team and for myself, so I'm a bit sad about that. Learning from this is difficult," a tearful Colapinto told ESPN Argentina after the race.
The young Argentine, who was announced last week as continuing with Alpine for the 2027 season, was still visibly frustrated when he later spoke to the written press in Monza, including Motorsport.com.
Franco Colapinto, Alpine
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
"I'm just frustrated. I think I did some good stuff," Colapinto said. "I don't know, I just lost the car completely in Turn 5-6, a bit out of nowhere, it's very frustrating. I think we could have done some good things, P2 and P3 together, and you feel so strong and suddenly fighting with the top teams, you get very motivated very quickly, and a mistake like that, it throws all away, and I'm just frustrated.
"I don't really understand yet what happened. I lost the car very aggressively, I went very fast through the gravel, I had a lot of damage, I thought I was going to have to retire, and then we started to go again, we changed the car a bit with the tools, we closed everything up a little bit and made the car slightly more draggy again, and yeah, managed to score points."
A podium battle was always going to be difficult to sustain, as his Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly demonstrated. Gasly started from pole but ultimately finished seventh. That, however, did little to ease Colapinto's frustration.
"Just frustrated with not maximising the car and the good stuff that we were doing together, and yeah, I think just learn for the future," he said. "But we don't get many of these opportunities fighting up there and at the front, and it's extra frustrating to have moments like this. I think we should have scored more points, so, sorry to the team, and hopefully we can do better in Madrid."
Asked by Motorsport.com about his pass on four-time world champion Verstappen, Colapinto played down the significance of the move, while acknowledging that it underlined just how much had slipped away.
"I think when you're in the car you don't really feel the difference if it's one or another, but it was cool to be fighting with them," he said. "That's what I meant [before], and to be fighting side-by-side with the top cars and the top teams, we cannot really do it. And so to just miss an opportunity like this, it's very painful."
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