Mattia Colnaghi on resetting for Spa and Budapest after a difficult first half of the season

Mattia Colnaghi went into the summer break on a strong run of form, but it has not been the easiest of seasons, and recently he sat down to reflect on it.

The MP Motorsport rookie had scored just one point after five rounds, but across the Spa-Francorchamps and Budapest weekends he finished fourth in each race.

Prior to the double header, he looked back on that tough first half of the season and how he dealt with it all mentally.

“Obviously it was not the best first half of the season for us in general,” he said. “It was a difficult few rounds struggling a bit in general but I think we've gained a good experience.

“We've had a good pointers on where our issues are, so we just kept working and chipping away and now are coming back in the second half of the season.”

When asked how he dealt with the struggles, Colnaghi said: “I tried just to not focus only on racing for a bit, like from round to round like from Silverstone to Spa.

“I was not really thinking about motorsport too much at that point, just chilling a bit and staying home, which is something that in this period I don't do often so that was quite nice.

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“Obviously at the end of the day, you need to keep working at it for when the time comes. For example we started the week before Spa in the sim, focusing on what we needed to focus on.”

Part of Colnaghi’s ability to switch off was helped by time with family, for example, before Spa, he went to his grandparents’ home in Bormio to do some hiking and biking.

It has helped the Red Bull junior deal with what was probably the toughest part of his career, given that in his first two years in single seaters, he won the 2024 Spanish F4 and 2025 Eurocup-3 championships.

“Obviously I've had a good couple of years in Spanish F4 and Eurocup-3,” he added. “It was a very nice experience for me, but ultimately, I think it also comes down to how much you learn.

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“I feel in every decision I am still learning a lot. I’ve made some mistakes but that can be expected as a rookie. The plan is obviously to learn from them and not make the same mistakes again.

“I just keep working on that because obviously it is a tough category and don't have much driving time compared to previous categories I’ve been in so it’s a great learning experience.”