Having made his F1 debut in Monza as a late-season replacement for Logan Sargeant at Williams, Franco Colapinto is strongly rumoured to be close to sealing a deal to join Red Bull's pool of drivers in 2025.
The 21-year-old Argentinian was picked up from F2 by Williams principal James Vowles to drive for the team for the final seven races of the season. However, a longer term role at Grove was never on the cards.
Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz have already been signed to drive for Williams in 2025, leaving no room for Colapinto even though he's already scored five points for the team over two races in Baku and Austin.
But the consistently impressive performances from Colapinto have caught the eye of other teams, including Red Bull which have the only seat on next year's grid that is yet to be confirmed.
Red Bull looks unlikely to retain the services of Sergio Perez beyond the end of the season. Meanwhile Liam Lawson has been given the chance to show what he can do at RB after taking over from Daniel Ricciardo after the Singapore GP.
Lawson could be in line for promotion from RB to the senior team in place of Perez, leaving an opening for Colapinto to run a full season at RB. That's certainly what former F1 driver turned pundit Ralf Schumacher expects.
“From my point of view, Colapinto is fixed,” Schumacher told Formel1.de this week. “Sergio Perez is simply so far away at the moment that it would be nice if a young man got the chance.”
Schumacher felt that any decision would have gone all the way to the top of the Red Bull organisation. “There was probably a very strong interest from the highest level, even beyond Helmut Marko."
Marko serves as driver programme boss, consultant and advisor for the Red Bull team. His direct boss at Red Bull GmbH is Oliver Mintzlaff, CEO of Corporate Projects and New Investments. Both men work for Mark Mateschitz.
Colapinto is believed to be in a position to bring a healthy financial “package” with him to whichever team he moves to, and Schumacher acknowledged that it would take a “pretty big deal” to secure the rookie's services.
Schumacher felt that it was still to be decided whether the Red Bull seat went to Colapinto or Lawson, and which of them had to settle for driving at RB alongside Yuki Tsunoda next year.
“I don’t think they’re quite sure about this internally," the six-time F1 race winner admitted.
Another former F1 driver felt that it would be a mistake for Colapinto to jump straight into the crucible of such a high profile seat at Red Bull and that a stint at RB would be the better option.
“He’s clearly very quick, clearly very talented,” Karun Chandhok told Sky Sports' F1 podcast this week. "But I think it’d be a mistake to put him in a Red Bull.
“I think we’ll all admit, including Williams, that it’s been a bit of a surprise, because his junior formula record didn’t suggest he’s going to be as good as he has been.
"If you look at the run he’s had, it’s like a guy who has done the perfect job interview, right? He’s come there, made an impact, bang, quick straight away. Results [at] Singapore, Baku. Amazing.
"Maybe he is well suited to an F1 car or the style of driving," the former HRT and Lotus driver conceded. "[But] it’s too early. If they were talking about putting him in an RB, that’d be a good, sensible choice and a career progression for him.
“I think if they put him in a Red Bull alongside Max, it could destroy him. I think it’d be too soon," he urged. "So maybe they’re going to put Liam Lawson in [at Red Bull] and they put Franco in [at VB]."
"It’s still not the complete package in terms of his experience," Chandhok argued. "As we've got into it and the races are unfolding, in Mexico he was some way off Alex in qualifying. And Brazil, he was some way off Alex in qualifying [and had] two big shunts
“Even for himself and his own management, I’d probably say: ‘Let’s think of the long term here’. If there’s an option of RB instead of going to Red Bull, I think that would be better for him.
"It’s probably a better choice for Red Bull to be making as well," he added.
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