Earlier this week, Williams decided to sack Logan Sargeant and replace him with their Academy and F2 driver, Franco Colapinto for the nine remaining races this season. Former Haas F1 team boss, Guenther Steiner finds it hard to understand the reasons behind this switch but backs James Vowles’ vision for the team nonetheless.
Steiner believes that the 21-year-old Argentinian might turn out to be an outstanding rookie for the Grove-based team. However, as Carlos Sainz will be driving for the team next year, Colapinto cannot be retained for 2025 anyway.
Hence, Steiner was unable to trace Vowles‘ motivations behind this move. Regardless, the American-Italian commended the former Mercedes man for picking up a young driver from the Williams Academy and promoting him to F1. He also praised Vowles for his acute understanding of up-and-coming talent.
Steiner explained on the Red Flags Podcast, “If he’s a rock star this year, [getting] points all the time he still cannot get a Williams seat… And James [Vowles], we must always remember, at Mercedes he was also in charge of the young drivers. So, he has got good data on all the young drivers. He knows them all very well.”
In the end, Steiner believes that Williams chose the option that best suited their requirements at the moment. According to him, the team would have weighed all their prospects and figured that Colapinto was their best shot at redemption after a pretty disappointing 2024 season so far. Williams sit ninth in the standings with only four points to their name.
How can Colapinto justify Vowles’ faith and make the most of his F1 stint?
Many drivers were being brought into the conversation to replace Sargeant at Williams. However, in the end, only Colapinto stood out for Vowles as his top choice. While there are many reasons for that decision, Colapinto will be expected to stabilize a rocky season for the Grove-based team.
Williams are looking to survive the rough patch they’ve endured this season. Vowles would be expecting the 21-year-old to not only keep his FW46 out of barriers but also to collect consistent and competitive data for the engineers to maximize their understanding of the car as a foundation for 2025.
Checkin’ in as a FORMULA 1 DRIVER for the first time pic.twitter.com/snVl1nANTX
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) August 29, 2024
As for Colapinto’s own full-time F1 prospects, he would want to put in a few impressive performances like Liam Lawson did last season with AlphaTauri (now VCARB). That could put him as a solid candidate in the driver market for the 2026 season like Lawson this year.
