James Vowles admits where Franco Colapinto ‘put one foot wrong’ during F1 debut at Italian Grand Prix

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Franco Colapinto drove admirably during his Formula 1 debut at the Italian Grand Prix, finishing in 12th place after perfecting the one-stop strategy.

The Williams driver was brought in midway through the season to replace American Logan Sargeant after he continued to make errors.

Colapinto had already impressed during the first practice session ahead of the British Grand Prix, with his best lap time four-tenths slower than teammate Alex Albon.

The good form continued at Monza after making good progress throughout practice and keeping the car out of the barriers.

Williams team principal, James Vowles, was impressed with the Argentinian but admitted he made a critical mistake in qualifying when speaking on the official Williams YouTube channel.

James Vowles maintains that Franco Colapinto’s only major error of the weekend was in qualifying

Qualifying is critically important at Monza as overtaking can be difficult despite the long straights. This is due to the low downforce setup the cars run, making DRS less effective than at other tracks.

Colapinto made a mistake an Lesmo 2 in Q1, costing him the chance to progress into the second knockout round and qualify inside the top 15 on the grid.

Despite the error, the 21-year-old missed the cutoff point to break into Q2 by just three-tenths of a second and lined up 18th on the grid.

READ MORE: What Red Bull did at Monza that proved they ‘don’t really know what they’re doing’

Vowles was happy with his driver’s performance over the weekend but conceded that he could have improved over a single lap in qualifying.

He said: “Franco had an excellent race weekend. He put one foot wrong, which was qualifying where he went off the track in turn seven.

“And up to that point, it was really around about a tenth off Alex, which is a positive place to start your first Grand Prix weekend qualifying.”

Franco Colapinto may have tougher tests at other tracks on the Formula 1 calendar

The Argentinian was very impressive during his debut Formula 1 weekend and wasn’t overshadowed by his more experienced teammate Albon.

There could be more difficult races on the horizon as Colapinto has raced at Monza before, taking victory in FIA F3. It is one of the simpler layouts on the calendar with only 11 turns.

Circuits such as the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore and the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Brazil, neither track he has competed on before, may be more difficult to get up to speed on.

His good pace and lack of major mistakes at the Italian Grand Prix should give him confidence to build on over the remaining eight races.