Franco Colapinto is ignoring speculation that he could secure a race seat elsewhere in 2025 amid strong praise of his performance at Williams from Lewis Hamilton at a media conference (pictured above) ahead of this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Williams promoted Colapinto in place of Logan Sargeant shortly after the summer break, and the rookie has been extremely impressive in scoring points in two of his five races so far. Finishing no lower than 12th to date, Colapinto has been linked with a move to RB or Stake in 2025, but he says he is unaware of whether Williams would allow him to leave.
“I think I shouldn’t be the person asked about that,” Colapinto said. “Of course, I don’t know the answer, and I guess yes, I think if Williams cannot give me a race seat, I think the normal thing is that they allow me to go somewhere else and that they find the best opportunity for me for the future. But I’m not the right person to be asked. I should be the last one.
“I’m here with Williams this weekend and I’m going to try to do my best here in Brazil. It’s a very exciting race, great atmosphere, and I cannot wait to be driving the Williams around Interlagos. I think for the future, it will be great that it happens. I thought I was not going to be racing in F1 next year, and that’s still my first view, so I don’t really get too excited about whatever they’re talking about.”
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Colapinto’s performance have not gone unnoticed by his peers, with Hamilton effusive in praising the job the Argentine rookie has done so far and urging his management to leave no stone unturned in trying to secure a race seat.
“I think he’s done an incredible job, last-minute to be called upon and thrown into the deep end in this sport,” Hamilton said. “The majority of us, if we’re lucky to get in the sport, we have a bit of a run-up.
“If you look at young Kimi [Antonelli] for example, he’s got a lot of test days before his race, I think he’ll have something like 20 days in the car, which is unprecedented. Whereas for this guy here he didn’t have that — he just jumped straight in and he did a fantastic job. It’s always great to see young people, young talented individuals get the opportunity to come through and shine, and I think he did that in the first race.”
For his part, Colapinto says he’s not paying attention to rumors that Red Bull could be interested in adding him to the team’s driver pool.
“I would like to be in Formula 1. I came very late in the year, and I got an amazing opportunity by Williams, by James [Vowles, team principal]. Sven [Smeets, sporting director], everyone in the team gave me a lot of trust, confidence to put me in that race seat. And I got an amazing chance that I was not expecting to get this year.
“I tried to do my best and have the best results possible to show that I deserve to sit here — that’s what I’m trying to show and to achieve. And if it’s not next year, I hope that it’s in ’26 or ’27.
“I’m not really having much pressure or anything like that. I’m trying to enjoy the moment, enjoy the opportunity that I’ve got. It was my dream since I was very little to drive a Formula 1 car and now to be here doing these last nine races, it’s very special.”
Hamilton was particularly impressed by his own on-track duel with Colapinto.
“We had a great little battle — it was super-safe, hard but fair, and I think he’s earned his right to be here,” Hamilton said. “There’s still a seat available, and he’s saying it’s not for him to decide but my advice would be… I would be pushing on my side, making sure I do absolutely everything.
“At the end of the day he’s got to just continue to focus on doing his job every weekend, as he is. Hopefully he’s got good people behind him who are doing the right job to make sure he’s here racing next year.”