It proved a difficult Austrian Grand Prix for Argentine race driver Franco Colapinto on Sunday. Starting from 14th on the grid for the Alpine F1 team, the 22-year-old had an outside chance for his first Formula 1 points of 2025, before a shunt from Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and a later penalty pushed him back to 15th at the chequered flag. 

The Argentine was one of the few drivers starting the race on soft tires. But any hopes of using their early advantage were dashed due to an opening lap crash between Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The retirements brought out the safety car, gaining him three positions after Racing Bull’s Isaak Hadjar took an early pit stop.

As the first stint of the race progressed Colapinto lost pace, the Alpine struggling for grip with the waning soft tires. He didn’t sell his position cheap, as Haas’ Oliver Bearman found as he was forced on the outside while first attempting to overtake Colapinto, but the Argentine eventually started to steadily drop in the order.

He stopped on lap 14, but was unable to make any gains from there, with a long, 3.9 seconds stop by the team releasing him on the back of the grid. 

That left Colapinto in a fight with Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda. On lap 31, the Japanese driver attempted to overtake the Argentine driver but mistimed his move and nearly took him out, causing the Alpine to spin and landing the Red Bull a penalty. 

It wasn’t the first time the two have clashed, with an incident at the Emilia Romagna GP prompting online abuse thrown at the Japanese driver by Argentine fans.

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The rest of the race proved a very similar affair for Colapinto. The 22-year-old could never progress on the standings or find pace on either the hard or soft tires, much like teammate Pierre Gasly — who dropped from 10th to 13th.

The worst part of the 22-year-old’s race came in the 54th lap. Fighting for position once again with Tsunoda, he didn’t notice the championship leading McLaren of Oscar Piastri and pushed him onto the grass. The move cost him a five second penalty, which moved him to 15th overall.

“It wasn’t an easy day for us,” said Colapinto after the race. “Our pace wasn’t good at the start and we only started to pick up at the end of the race. We have to figure stuff out with the team and improve for the next race.”

The mention of a next race by the Argentine is a positive, as he was only originally confirmed for five races by Alpine, which would’ve been completed at Austria.

F1 takes to the United Kingdom for the next race on the calendar, as the British GP is set to start on July 4, with the first two practice sessions at 8:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. Saturday will see the third practice run at 7:30 a.m. before qualifying at 11 a.m. The race will start at 11 a.m. on Sunday. All times are Argentine time.