RaceFans Round-up: Colapinto pushed Albon to raise his game

In the round-up: Williams team principal James Vowles says Alexander Albon found himself under more pressure after Franco Colapinto joined the team.

In brief

Colapinto pushed Albon to improve – Vowles

Vowles said the decision to promote Colapinto to the team in place of Logan Sargeant had three positive effects, including pushing Albon to raise his game.

“First and foremost, just in character, [Colapinto] is an individual that loved every moment of being in the Formula 1 car and a part of the team,” said Vowles in a video produced by Williams. “You can see that in what he was expressing to the world, what he was saying on TV and how he was over the radio. It helps because you have a team really bonded together, providing the opportunity to an individual that deserved his chance and deserves to be in Formula 1.

“Second of all, it pushed Alex. There’s no doubt about it. We moved forward as a team because we’re finding different areas of trying different set-ups, different electronic tools, different ways of approaching the lap. And every driver in the world, every human being in the world, becomes better by being challenged. And ultimately, Franco brought back to the team.

“Finally, what we saw is that we have a great future behind us. We have an academy that’s flourishing in the background, and Franco is a brilliant member of it. But we have many, many more, much younger, down to 10 years old. But the Williams Academy is real, it’s genuine, and we will put those individuals in the car. And Franco represents that.”

Crawford quickest in F2 test

Jak Crawford led the first day of Formula 2 testing at the Yas Marina yesterday. The DAMS driver set a quickest time of 1’36.697.

The session was stopped once after Christian Mansell spun his Rodin car in the section underneath the hotel.

US F1 TV figures fall short of 2022 record

Formula 1 set its seventh US viewership record of 2024 in its final race at Abu Dhabi, ESPN reported. The season finale attracted an average of one million viewers.

However the average viewership for the entire season across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC was 1.1 million, slightly down on its 2022 record of 1.2 million.

Norris helmet raised £43,000 for charity

Lando Norris’s special Hungarian Grand Prix helmet raised £43,001 when it was sold at auction. The money will be shared by the Hungarian Federation of Blind and Partially Sighted and the UK’s Royal Society for Blind Children.

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