Williams Team Principal James Vowles has urged critics of Franco Colapinto to let him “settle” into his new drive at Alpine, after a tough opening two Formula 1 races for the Argentinian this year.
Colapinto made his F1 debut with Williams last season, replacing Logan Sargeant from the Italian Grand Prix onwards.
In his nine-race stint with the Grove-based squad, Colapinto scored five points, picking up top 10 finishes in both Singapore and Austin.
After being transferred to Alpine prior to this season, speculation mounted as to when, not if, the 22-year-old would replace Jack Doohan, and did so from the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix onwards.
However, he has so far struggled to get up to speed of team-mate Pierre Gasly, and whilst finishing at both Imola and Monaco, he has been outside the points, and will hope that this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix will be where he can kickstart his campaign.
When asked if he was surprised about Colapinto’s struggles in the car, Vowles told media, including Motorsport Week: “[It’s] What you see with Carlos [Sainz] coming here as an example,” he said. “World-class driver, it takes time to get up to speed in the car and he [Colapinto] jumped in halfway through the season, as he did with us as well, and he had some races that were very strong, some races that took a little bit more time.
“I think the ask I have of everyone is, whether it’s Franco or others, give them time. It does take time to settle into a car.”
Briatore ‘only looking at performance’ from Colapinto
In yesterday’s team representatives’ press conference, in which Motorsport Week was present, Alpine’s Executive Advisor and interim boss Flavio Briatore appealed for further time for Colapinto to get up to speed.
The charisamtic Italian is a big fan of Colapinto and despite a term of five races in which to prove himself was mooted, he suggested again that this was not the case.
“We need to wait one second to judge Franco. We see. We see this race,” Briatore said. “We need the full race. We did Monte Carlo. It was a very special race for everybody. We made a lot of mistakes in qualifying. And in Monte Carlo, you know, qualifying well is the race. Especially this race. Monte Carlo, it was very boring and very annoying. Let’s see.
“This is the first real race of Franco. Races, I don’t know, honestly. I never tell five races, three races, four races, one race. We see. If Colapinto is performing he’s driving the car. If not, we’ll see.
“2025 is a year we need to prepare ourselves for 2026. So whatever experiment I need doing, we’re doing. I don’t know at this moment if Franco will stay for the season or not, but let’s see.
“Depends on the performance. We’re only looking at the performance — nothing else.”
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