The Argentinian driver, who replaced Jack Doohan as Pierre Gasly’s teammate at the team at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, heads into this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix still chasing his first points of the season, with a best finish of 13th in Monaco, matching Doohan’s top result at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Qualifying has been equally tough, with Colapinto only escaping Q1 once in Imola, where he set a competitive time before crashing out of the session.
Reflecting on the recent triple-header in Imola, Monaco, and Spain, Colapinto admitted it was difficult to build momentum.
“They were tough,” Colapinto said. “They were not, of course, maybe as I was expecting. I was expecting to do a bit more progress after Imola, but it’s always tough to get back into F1 after six races of not being there.
“The drivers learned a lot, tyre management, and when you are not driving it’s really tricky.
“But I think it was really good, this break, this week off to get back with the team, to get back together and understand the issues, understand what we have to do better, where we were lacking some pace and where I can improve as well.
“I think it was a good break and hopefully it brings some performance for now.”
The 22-year-old said he spent the break at Alpine’s factory working with engineers and logging significant time in the simulator to better understand the car and iron out ongoing setup issues.
“There are some things setup-wise that have not been working for me,” Colapinto added. “I felt very much almost out of phase with everything – with the tools in the car, with the setup.
“One thing was fighting the other one. Once we understood that after the race in Barcelona, it made much more sense to me.
“I think here, I arrive with a bit more confidence. I spent a lot of days in the sim, a lot of days in the factory with the engineers so I can understand.
“Hopefully we made a step. We need that step, so hopefully we can do it here.”
Colapinto made his F1 debut last season with Williams, stepping in mid-season to replace Logan Sargeant.
He impressed early, scoring points in two of his first four outings, before a series of mistakes and incidents late in the year disrupted his momentum.
He said adjusting to the Alpine has been a much different experience than learning the Williams last year.
“It’s very different,” Colapinto admitted. “When I came into Williams last year, the only comparison I got was that.
“I (had) never even driven another Formula 1 car. So I couldn’t really compare it to anything else, whereas now I have got that.
“In Alpine I’m learning a lot. There are many good things. There are some things that are different. The car is very different to drive as well, and it’s just getting up to speed with that and trying to understand what’s the weakest way around it.”
Colapinto will race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the first time this weekend, and said he is optimistic despite being unfamiliar with the circuit.
“It’s kind of a street track, and that always brings a bit more emotion to us as drivers.
“At the end of the day, to drive an F1 around here – such an historic and massive track in the history of the sport – it’s very cool.”
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