James Vowles sees a path like Esteban Ocon for Franco Colapinto in F1 considering the Argentine doesn’t have a driver for in 2025 season.
Having promoted Colapinto to a F1 seat during his F2 season, Vowles hoped that his performances will impress rivals teams to take the Argentine in their fold for a potentially full season in 2025. It seemed like happening at one when stage when reported talks with Red Bull were ongoing.
But Colpainto’s multiple crashes held back the discussions. And eventually the Argentine is without a F1 seat in 2025 after his nine-race stint with Williams ended, who already signed Carlos Sainz. It hasn’t deterred team boss Vowles as he sees a path like Ocon for the Argentine.
The Frenchman too had to sit out a year before his eventual step towards Alpine to re-start his F1 career. It worked out for Ocon and Vowles reckons a year out for Colapinto will not hurt the Argentine’s chances. He is most likely to be the full-time reserve at Williams.
“We have a historic car, two-year-old car, he’ll be running that plenty in order to get a lot of speed,” said Vowles to media. “I’ve done this before in a previous life with Esteban when he took a year out. And you’re able to… Effectively, Esteban’s here today and still a strong driver. There are things we can do effectively around it to maintain his strength.”
The incidents did hurt Colapito in the end where the Argentine noted about being concussed after his incident in Las Vegas. Vowles, however, clarified the situation, as he was cleared to compete in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. “I don’t think there was a formal concussion check done as a result of it,” he said.
“What I can say is that we asked the medical team to assess him the following day. Once he’s had a night’s rest, they assessed him in a number of different ways and cleared him to race as a result of it. What I would say is the FIA did a brilliant job because it’s a massive hit. 50 G is just enormous. And what I wanted to make sure is before we put someone back in the car that they were completely clear and fit in that regard.
“And for Franco, it’s probably the largest single accident he’s ever suffered by a long way in his life as a result of it. For me, the more important thing is that he’s healthy and good. I think in the race you saw he did a good job. It’s always hard when you start from the back, but he was fighting his way back through the field.
“I don’t think we quite had everything right with the car there and the car wasn’t really the best we’ve ever particularly made. But yeah, that’s pretty much it. The main thing is he was cleared to race by the FIA the following day,” summed up Vowles.
Here’s James Vowles on crashes being a distraction
Here’s Alexander Albon on if Williams did like Aston Martin
Here’s Alexander Albon on transparent James Vowles
Here’s Franco Colapinto, Alexander Albon on the stint
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