Franco Colapinto’s Formula 1 future remains unclear as both Red Bull and Sauber/Audi remain in discussions with Williams about the possibility of securing his services for 2025.
Sauber has an open seat alongside Nico Hulkenberg, and Mattia Binotto has made it clear that the choice lies between having a second experienced driver in Valtteri Bottas, or a youngster, with Gabriel Bortoleto the other main name under consideration.
Audi says that any driver would have to be totally free of any commitments to his previous team, and that would require a hefty payment to Williams to get Colapinto out of his contract.
Red Bull’s situation is less clear. At the moment the team has Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson across its four cars, with Isack Hadjar waiting in the wings as the next potential VCARB driver.
However Colapinto has proved hard to ignore, and Christian Horner is known to be keen to get him on board.
As a bonus Colapinto could bring useful sponsorship from Argentina to the Red Bull camp which could in theory replace any lost Mexican partners should Sergio Perez be dropped.
Helmut Marko is understood to be less enthusiastic, and it’s obvious that signing a driver from outside the Red Bull camp would compromise the junior programme, and create even more of a logjam than there already is.
“He is impressive,” Marko told to formu1a.uno recently about Colapinto. “I spoke with him four years ago. He never was properly funded. And if you look at his F3 and F2, you wouldn’t expect what is doing. But there’s a lot of youngsters, good ones, and as far as I know he has a long-term contract with Williams.”
Williams boss James Vowles confirmed that he’s in discussion with more than one team.
“The best I can say is this – we are exploring possibilities with a number of teams that are interested at the moment,” he said. “And beyond there, it would be wrong to do anything more than speculate here. There’s nothing to really communicate beyond that point.
“When there is, I’ll happily talk about it because he’s an exceptional driver. And I really mean that. Go look outside. There are tens of thousands of individuals here to support a driver that’s been in our championship for five races.
“He’s doing an outstanding job on track. And as I’ve said from the very beginning, earn your position and elements will come your way.
“But beyond there, I think especially when we look at the fact he’s a 21-year-old and my responsibility is also towards him and making sure we do the right thing, I want to make sure that when we have news, come to the world, but there really isn’t much to talk about right now.”
Vowles conceded that negotiations are not straightforward.
“The best I can really tell you is we’re actively working with teams that are interested to try and find the right arrangement that helps Franco, that protects Franco as well and protects all parties,” he said.
“So it’s very much in those lines. It’s the same concept behind it. It’s never straightforward between F1 teams because you’re fighting on track and you’re trying to find a solution for a career of a young man.
“He is earning his place. He needs to do more on track to keep earning his place as a result of things, but he’s shining, and that’s why there’s interest from teams. And our responsibility in that is I have a responsibility both towards him and Williams.
“And hopefully we’ll have some great news to be able to talk to everyone about, but today that isn’t available.”
Asked for a timeline Vowles suggested that a decision would be made before the last race of this season.
“These sorts of things are always hard to do because you’re talking about multiple teams talking together,” he said.
“But it’ll be something that I’m confident before the last race of the season we’ll have nailed. But it’s really hard for me to pinpoint where in between those two timelines.”
Meanwhile McLaren boss Andrea Stella reiterated that the team is willing to let Bortoleto race elsewhere.
“I would like to take this opportunity to say once again how good a work he’s been doing in junior categories, winning F3, leading F2 at the first season,” said the Italian.
“And this is to lead into the fact that I think it’s very, very normal and natural that F1 teams are interested in having Gabriel as a driver. In terms of McLaren, McLaren will not stop the possibility for Gabriel to drive F1.
“So conversations are ongoing, and we will see what the scenario will be for the future.”
