Franco on his early days in F1 and the toughest moment of his journey:

I started my F1 career and in my second race I made it straight into Q3 and scored points. My third race wass in Singapore, a super challenging track, and I almost scored points again. After that I scored points in Austin so it was an incredible start.

Then I had the crash in Las Vegas, and suddenly everything was a disaster. Everyone suddenly forgot about everything!

I do believe you're only as good as your last race, but it was frustrating that all the hard work and the good things suddenly came to an end because of one rookie mistake. At the end of the day I was still learning. I'd never driven an F1 car before, apart from half a day in Abu Dhabi.

It's not an excuse, but it showed me how quickly things can change in F1, and sometimes that's a bit frustrating.

I had to race with old parts in the last two races, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, because after that crash in Vegas the car was destroyed.

I share this example now because it was the toughest moment for me. I was running out of time and still didn't have a new contract, so you want to perform well to prove your worth. But then you suddenly know you can't because you're driving a car that's three tenths slower.

That was really difficult for me. I think it was the hardest experience I've had so far, but all those things really make you stronger."

The learning curve is incredible. To be honest, when I did my first races with Williams, I was exhausted after every race weekend simply because of the amount of things I suddenly had to deal with.

Those are the things no one sees. I think F1 is a beautiful sport, and it's what we've dreamed about our whole lives, but when you get there, a lot of things change, and you have to change a little bit yourself too.