Williams has announced the promotion of academy driver Franco Colapinto for rest of 2024 F1 season as Logan Sargeant’s replacement.
In a surprise move from Williams, the F1 team has promoted its academy driver Colapinto to replace Sargeant for rest of the 2024 season. The surprise is choice of driver and not that the American driver has been axed mid-season amid a difficult run.
Having got the chance to continue in F1 in 2024, Sargeant has had a difficult run and the latest crash in Zandvoort in FP3 only made it worse for him. The American already was to be replaced by Carlos Sainz for the 2025 season, but has been shown the door early.
Interestingly, he will remain in the Williams family as noted in the official release, but in what capacity, it remains to be seen. After names like Liam Lawson, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Mick Schumacher, which did rounds, the team opted to go for their own driver.
This means Colapinto will not see-through his F2 campaign with MP Motorsport, where he sits sixth in the drivers’ standings with 96 points in his kitty to go with one win and three podiums in all. He undertook the FP1 session in British GP this year.
Colapinto got the nod over Zak O’Sullivan and will use #43 as his race number when he starts out this weekend in Italian GP at Monza. It is a brand new race number which hasn’t been used previously. It is still to be known who replaces him at MP Motorsport.
“It is an honour to be making my Formula 1 debut with Williams – this is what dreams are made of,” said Colapinto. “The team has such amazing history and a mission to get back to the front which I can’t wait to be part of. Coming into F1 mid-season will be an enormous learning curve but I am up for the challenge, and I’m fully focused on working as hard as I can with Alex and the team to make it a success.”
Team boss James Vowles stated: “To replace a driver mid-season is not a decision we have taken lightly, but we believe this gives Williams the best chance to compete for points over the remainder of the season. We have just brought a large upgrade to the car and need to maximise every points-scoring opportunity in a remarkably tight midfield battle.
“We also believe in investing in our young drivers in the Williams Racing Driver Academy, and Franco is getting a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate what he is capable of across the final nine rounds of the season.
“This is undoubtedly incredibly tough on Logan, who has given his all throughout his time with Williams, and we want to thank him for all his hard work and positive attitude. Logan remains a talented driver and we will support him to continue his racing career for the future. I know that Franco has great speed and huge potential, and we look forward to seeing what he can do in Formula 1.”
Here’s Logan Sargeant when asked in Zandvoort
Here’s Logan Sargeant on FP3 crash
Here’s Logan Sargeant on Carlos Sainz hire
Here’s Alexander Albon on Williams being on the backfoot
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