Franco Colapinto has suddenly emerged as a contender to land a seat at one of the two Red Bull-owned teams for 2025. In fact, that is his only chance at getting a full-time seat for next season. However, after showing better performances than his Williams predecessor Logan Sargeant, the Argentine driver is also emulating his mistakes — crashing his car often.
Sargeant had a very under-par one-and-a-half-year stint in F1 and only scored a single point for Williams [at the 2023 US GP]. On top of that, the American driver often crashed his car, which exponentially increased the damage repair bills for the Grove outfit.
Midway into the 2024 season, Williams team boss James Vowles lost patience with Sargeant’s lack of points as well as crash-prone nature. Replacing him with Colapinto, Vowles had the bare minimum expectations that the Williams Academy driver would minimize their crash damage and put in solid supporting performances to Alex Albon.
Colapinto exceeded those expectations by scoring points in his second-ever Grand Prix. With him even beating his senior teammate Albon, he caught the attention of many in the paddock. Red Bull also started considering him as a candidate to fit in at either of their teams after his points-scoring performances in Baku and Austin.
However, the increase in his crashes in Brazil and Las Vegas could cause that interest to wither away. The massive shunt in the Grand Prix in Sao Paulo certainly hurt Williams a lot as not only did it rule out any chances of them scoring points, but their rivals — Alpine, Haas, and RB — also steered clear of them with good points hauls.
Absolutely gutted
Williams’ mechanics react as Colapinto crashes out of qualifying #F1 #LasVegasGP pic.twitter.com/tYcpXqUvwv
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 23, 2024
To rub salt in the wounds of the increasing damage bill, Colapinto also had a major crash during the Las Vegas GP qualifying. The 21-year-old knows that his boss Vowles is not happy with these persistent crashes. Moreover, it can also hurt Colapinto’s image as a reliable driver in Red Bull’s eyes as they may rule him out for a seat at RB or their main team.
Can Colapinto become a driver for Red Bull?
There have been reports of Red Bull seriously considering Colapinto for one of its four seats and Christian Horner’s visit to the Williams motorhome in Brazil further amplified these reports. Even Red Bull managing director Oliver Mintzlaff visited there during the Las Vegas GP.
While both Horner and Vowles denied any talks about Colapinto, there is a possibility that the Argentine driver could go to Red Bull if the negotiations work out well. But, as things stand, Colapinto’s prospect of joining Red Bull do not seem promising.
There is a reported clause of Williams wanting $20 million to let Red Bull have Colapinto on an outright deal. Then, Williams won’t have any association with their Academy driver with the Austrian outfit completely owning his contract.
There has been a notion that Red Bull don’t want to sign Colapinto on a loan deal. However, now with the crashes maligning his image a bit, Red Bull may reconsider that option and may decide to secure the 21-year-old on a short-term loan deal at their junior team.
