Williams set to hand Colapinto F1 drives in 2025

Williams team principal James Vowles has revealed details of Franco Colapinto’s duties with the team for next season.

Colapinto spent the last nine races of the past campaign racing for Williams, scoring five points for the Grove-based squad after stepping in for Logan Sargeant.

However, the Argentine will not race for the team next year as Williams had already signed up Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.

Colapinto continued to be linked with other F1 projects, including Red Bull’s set-up, but now seems resigned to a year on the sidelines.

Vowles has stated Williams will keep him up to speed in two-year-old machinery, otherwise known as TPC [Testing of Previous Cars], which is allowed outside of weekend sessions.

“We’ll have a historic car, a two-year-old car [for Colapinto,” Vowles told media including RacingNews365 before the end of the F1 season. “He’ll be running that plenty to get a lot of speed.”

Vowles pointed to his experience with Esteban Ocon at Mercedes, who sat out the 2019 season before returning the following year, with plenty of testing mileage under his belt.

“I’ve done this before in a previous life with Esteban when he took a year out,” he said. 

“Effectively, Esteban’s here today and still a strong driver. There are things we can do effectively around it to maintain his strength.”