The start of the Formula 1 Australian GP had a high-risk moment that did not appear on official broadcasts. Franco Colapinto revealed that he almost suffered a serious accident with Liam Lawson shortly after the start of the race in Melbourne.
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The Argentine driver explained that he had to swerve sharply to avoid the Racing Bulls car, which had problems at the start and remained practically stationary on the grid. The situation happened in the middle of the pack, with visibility compromised by other cars in front of him.
According to Colapinto, he only noticed the danger at the last moment. To avoid the collision, he had to quickly throw the car to the right, narrowly escaping an impact that could have caused a serious accident on the very first lap.
“I almost had a big accident with Liam, because he stayed stationary on the grid,” the driver stated when commenting on the episode after the race.
The Argentine highlighted that the situation was even more complicated because he couldn’t clearly see the car ahead due to the movement of the pack at the start. When he finally noticed the problem, the reaction had to be immediate.
“I was very lucky to make it through the first lap,” he explained.
This season’s start brought important changes to the Formula 1 starting procedure. With the removal of the MGU-H from the power units, the cars need a few seconds to build up energy in the turbo before the start.
Therefore, the new procedure includes a five-second period to prepare the system before the lights go out. Even so, several drivers were surprised by how quickly the lights went out, something that also drew attention during the race.
Colapinto stated that, given the characteristics of the new cars, situations like this can become particularly dangerous. According to him, the images show that the moment was extremely delicate.
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“The video shows it was very dangerous and quite complicated,” he said.
Despite avoiding direct impact with the Racing Bulls car, the driver revealed that he still lightly touched the wall with his right rear wheel during the evasive maneuver. Even so, he managed to continue in the race.
At the end of the race, Colapinto crossed the finish line in 14th position. The result, however, was also affected by a penalty during the race.
The Argentine had to serve a stop/go after a team member touched the car after the 15-second signal during a stop. As a result, he ended up finishing one position behind Lawson, who finished in 13th place.
In addition to the incident at the start, the driver also assessed that the team’s performance throughout the weekend was below expectations. According to him, the car’s pace was not competitive throughout the entire stage in Melbourne.
“We struggled with pace this weekend,” he explained.
After the tests conducted in Bahrain before the start of the season, the expectation was for a better performance in Australia. However, Colapinto summarized the result of the Melbourne GP as a complicated day for the team.
“We expected much more after Bahrain. It was simply a difficult afternoon,” the driver concluded.
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