Franco Colapinto says it wasn’t the end he wanted to his current F1 stint, as Alexander Albon hopes that doesn’t defines the future of the Argentine.
Having started off handsomely with points in his first few outings, Colapinto endured a tougher end to his nine-race stint with Williams. Some of the crashes took a toll on him, especially the one in Las Vegas qualifying, as it came at a time when the rumours about Red Bull was high.
It has kind of stalled now. The Argentine’s season didn’t end well in Abu Dhabi after he was forced to retire, which added to his misery. Despite the hiccups, Colapinto was grateful to Williams for giving him the opportunity, pulling him into F1 from his F2 season.
While it is not certain about his future, but the most likely case will be him doing a full-time reserve role at Williams and undertaking some testing programme in 2025. “It hasn’t been there the last couple of races I wanted, really unlucky,” said Colapinto. “It just hasn’t been the end of the of the season I wanted. But it’s part of it, part of Formula 1.
“This deal was my dream come true, and it was an amazing experience, but I would have liked much more if we would have ended as we started! But it’s part of F1. As I said, it was a dream, that’s I think the summary [of the last 9 races]. Since I was very young I was waiting for this opportunity and working towards it.
“It’s just been an extremely good experience and very nice moments with the team, I’m very grateful with Williams for the opportunity. [I am] very grateful, it’s been a lot of support coming from my home country. I’m just really happy to see so much support coming from Argentina and so many fans getting into the sport.
“I don’t know [what’s next for me], no idea, no plans at the moment. Hopefully I can be racing in something next year,” summed up Colapinto, as Williams teammate Albon came to his aide in the matter. The Thai driver hopes that the last few races doesn’t defines his F1 future.
Considering so many youngsters are coming through, Colapinto can quickly become obsolete if he doesn’t make it back soon. Albon hopes that F1 teams remember the situation, that even the Thai driver faced driving the Williams, whose performance dipped towards the end of 2024.
“I feel like he’s proved his worth in Formula 1,” said Albon. “I think he’s very talented. Definitely, when he joined, I underestimated just how quick he was going to be. And I believe we’ll see him in Formula 1 at some point in the future. I hope not. I don’t think he deserves it to be.
“I think it really goes in tandem with the performance of the car, and it became tricky at the end of the season. It was tricky for me, I didn’t have a fantastic end to the season, and I don’t always just blame myself for that. So I don’t think so. I think the team also know how good he is, and other teams will be able to see that as well.”
Here’s Williams pair being dejected in Abu Dhabi
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