Franco Colapinto in frame for 2025 F1 seat: Williams willing to do Audi deal

“So what’s the best for us from now to the final goal? Is it more having short-term experience, and then moving to something different? We need to decide. And today, I think we are not in the position to answer.

“We are certainly listening to all potential drivers. We are evaluating what are the pros and the cons, what’s the best compromise.

“I think we will decide as soon as possible, no doubt, because we need to set up the team for next year and for the future. We need to as well stop any speculations, because it’s not in our interest.

“But so far, no decision as well on what will be best. I think it’s really type of evaluations we are doing right now, and hopefully very soon, will become the conclusion.”

So who is in the frame? Seidl was always keen on Liam Lawson, should he not remain in the Red Bull camp, but it became clear some time ago that the Kiwi wouldn’t be free.

Sauber already has its own longtime academy driver Theo Pourchaire to call on, and the Frenchman has now added useful Indy experience to the knowledge gained when he won the 2023 F2 title. F2 star Zane Maloney, currently third in the points, is also a Sauber junior driver.

However pretty much everyone else on the F2 grid who isn’t already assigned a race seat for 2025 is also on the radar.

The name at the top of that particular list is that of McLaren protégé Gabriel Bortoleto. The Brazilian won the F3 title last year and has become an increasingly strong contender in F2 of late, scoring a great win in Monza, and moving into the series lead.

And then there’s Colapinto, who has put himself front and centre, right under the noses of Sauber and Audi.

F1 is a very insular world. Obviously all teams have people who are close to the F2 and F3 scene, and who know well the value of the members of their own junior programmes.

However there’s no substitute for jumping in an F1 car and doing a good job in front of the whole paddock.

Just look at Oliver Bearman in Jeddah earlier this year. Having made such a strong debut with Ferrari he pretty much guaranteed that he would be in a full-time F1 seat sooner rather than later, and his F2 form became almost irrelevant.

And that’s exactly what Colapinto has done. He had a very solid if unspectacular last-minute debut in Monza, spoiled by a trip through the gravel in Q1 that left him lower on the grid than he might have been. But it was last weekend’s Azerbaijan GP that really made the whole pitlane take note.

A crash on Friday provided ammunition for the sceptics in the wake of Logan Sargeant’s record, but then even Baku expert Charles Leclerc found the wall.

Colapinto picked himself up and on Saturday he sailed through qualifying in eighth, sixth and ninth across the three sessions.

At his second attempt he had outqualified Alex Albon, although the Thai driver’s final run was compromised by the cooling fan episode.

“The boys in the garage did an amazing job. They gave me a big confidence boost and a lot of energy”

Sargeant rarely came anywhere near to Albon even after more than 30 race weekends. Colapinto did it after an accident that could have really knocked his confidence, and on a tricky street track.

“Yeah, it was difficult,” he said when asked about the setback of the early crash. “But more difficult it was going to be if I couldn’t do FP2. And luckily, the boys in the garage did an amazing job to put the car back out. They didn’t even have lunch, but they were working flat out to put my car out in FP2.

“And after they did that, they gave me a big confidence boost and a lot of energy to try and achieve a good result for them, for the effort that they have been doing this year. And it was nice today to give them back a little bit of what they gave me…”

That was a mighty impressive glass half-full approach, and in stark contrast to Sargeant, who always seemed to have the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Colapinto backed up his qualifying form with a superb run in the race, getting into the points in his own right in 10th by passing future Sauber man Hülkenberg, and then gaining two more spots from the Perez/Sainz tangle.

Where Colapinto may edge out the likes of Bortoleto and Pourchaire in Binotto’s eyes is that he now combines a degree of F1 experience with youth.

These nine races with Williams will give him a massive headstart heading into 2025, and he would arrive at Sauber as a complete package, and with a lot of useful knowledge about the FW46 as well. He’s certainly given Binotto and his colleagues a lot to think about.

“Mattia is now assessing the potential candidates,” Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi told Motor Sport. “We have no rush to take a decision. We want to take the decision of course – we don’t want to keep this page open for a long time.

“And this will be a decision not just for ’25, but also for the future. So there are several options, different profiles. And Mattia is the head of Audi F1 project, so it will be on him.

“Also together with Nico, because we want to have the good pair of drivers for next year and for the future. There will be challenges ahead of us. So first of all, we need to have people that understand this, and are committed with us, and share the vision that we have.”

And that shared vision is key. The problem once you go looking on the F2 grid is that most of the top drivers are tied to the junior programmes of F1 teams.

Of course there is always a deal to be done on loaning a driver for a year or two, on the condition that he can be recalled if the team that gave him his chance needs him back.

However, Audi doesn’t want such an arrangement. Alunni Bravi has made it clear that the team wants a driver who is completely free of commitment to any rivals, and overnight becomes a 100% Sauber/Audi man with no entanglements elsewhere.

And that’s where Colapinto could be the perfect ticket.

Yes, teams are always reluctant to let go of a driver in whom they’ve invested millions, backing their junior careers or running their F1 testing.

They also are usually keen to keep such drivers in the camp in a reserve role, and in Colapinto Williams would have one of the strongest third drivers in the pitlane in 2025, clearly ready to jump in at any time.

However Vowles told Motor Sport on Sunday night that he’s open to discussion with Binotto of what’s possible with Colapinto.

If the only way forward is that the Argentine is cut free of any Williams ties, it won’t be an easy call for Vowles to make. Just losing his 2025 reserve driver will be a blow.

In the end there’s a harsh commercial reality – and that could mean Audi ends up paying a hefty sum to get Colapinto free, and compensate Williams for its investment.

Such deals are not uncommon, with the last high-profile one involving Alpine buying Pierre Gasly out of his Red Bull contract.

Vowles is also a racer at heart, and if such an arrangement means that a young guy he rates and greatly admires will land a career opportunity that would otherwise not happen, then so be it.

Having said that, Binotto may be able to pull off a similar deal with McLaren and Bortoleto, given that Woking won’t have a free race seat for years to come. Let’s see what unfolds…