Crashes shouldn’t overshadow “fantastic” Colapinto’s Williams F1 stint

Williams driver Alex Albon thinks Franco Colapinto’s powerful last System 1 races with the squad shouldn’t overshadow the superb outcomes the Argentinian produced.

Colapinto’s spectacular early races since stepping in for Logan Sargeant in Monza turned heads within the paddock, they usually additionally yielded Williams 5 essential factors over three race weekends, which regarded essential on the time earlier than the group was lastly left behind by its midfield rivals.

Colapinto’s kind, composed angle and fast adaptation to the calls for of F1 even made Purple Bull contemplate making a transfer for the 21-year-old because it weighed up its driver choices for 2025.

However as swiftly because the Argentine appeared on Purple Bull’s radar, a spate of pricey crashes in Brazil and Las Vegas have been fast to place Christian Horner and Helmut Marko off once more, with the pair turning in direction of their very own driver pool as a substitute.

In response to Albon, it’s harsh to only decide Colapinto on the tougher second half of his nine-race Williams cameo, as its FW46 additionally grew to become tougher to drive and the group was having to battle tougher and tougher to maintain up with the competitors.

When requested if Colapinto’s crashes have overshadowed his season, Albon replied: “I hope not. I do not suppose he deserves it to be.

“I believe it actually goes in tandem with the efficiency of the automobile, and it grew to become difficult on the finish of the season. It was difficult for me. I did not have a unbelievable finish of the season, and I do not all the time simply blame myself, so I believe the group is aware of how good he’s.”

Franco Colapinto, Williams Racing, Alex Albon, Williams Racing, on the drivers parade

Picture by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Photographs

Albon believes the timing of Colapinto’s arrival helped him settle in as a result of round September Williams was at its finest.

After having taken weight out of its chassis, Williams additionally launched its solely main replace bundle across the Dutch Grand Prix, earlier than it began sliding again once more in direction of the top of the yr.

“By way of timing, I believe it was good he got here in when the automobile was at its best and probably simpler to drive again than it’s now, on tracks that have been additionally fairly good to drive,” mentioned Albon.

“To be honest he did an excellent job in Baku and Singapore, they usually weren’t straightforward tracks to drive. After which it is simply F1; I believe we have fallen again. You possibly can nonetheless get into Q2 with a mean lap whereas later you needed to do an ideal lap to get into Q2 and all these type of issues. And it simply distorts barely the place it comes.

“It is easy to overpush when it is that tight and there’s no margin to be sluggish or to make a mistake. Each of us went via a tricky group of races, so I would not blame him an excessive amount of. Particularly Brazil, first time within the moist, that is not straightforward round a troublesome observe. After which clearly Vegas was simply difficult.

“He is a unbelievable driver. I really feel like he is proved his value in System 1. Positively, when he joined, I underestimated simply how fast he was going to be, and I consider we’ll see him in System 1 sooner or later sooner or later.”

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