Revealed: The quick turnaround between Logan Sargeant’s crash and Franco Colapinto’s call

Franco Colapinto has been signed to Williams for the remainder of the 2024 season.

Franco Colapinto’s management team has revealed how they joked about calling Williams after Logan Sargeant’s Dutch GP crash only to receive a message saying “can we talk”.

After months of speculation and one final reported million-dollar crash, Sargeant’s Formula 1 career ended on Tuesday when Williams announced he would be replaced by junior driver Colapinto for the final nine races of the season.

Franco Colapinto will replace Logan Sargeant for the final nine races of F1 2024

Additional reporting by Pablo Hidalgo

The Argentinian, who joined the Williams junior programme last year before stepping up into Formula 2 this season where he won one race, will make his Formula 1 debut at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

Coming less than a month after Colapinto rued losing the 2025 Williams F1 race seat to Carlos Sainz, the 21-year-old’s manager Maria Catarineu revealed it was Williams who made contact after Zandvoort, not Colapinto’s team.

And the initial contact was made already on Saturday.

“Since Sargeant’s accident that happened in the morning, Franco and I were jokingly saying to Jamie [Jamie Campbell, Maria’s partner and head of Bullet Sport Management]: ‘Why don’t you give them a call? We never lose anything over a phone call’,” she told Fox Sport Argentina.

“And Jamie said, ‘Leave me alone, leave me alone. Don’t talk rubbish’.

“And all of a sudden he says, ‘I don’t have to call them anymore’. He showed me and Franco his mobile phone and there was a text message saying: ‘Can we talk? And obviously there was a conversation”

More on Logan Sargeant’s F1 exit and his Williams replacement

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Colapinto’s call-up means he’ll relinquish his MP Motorsport ride for the rest of the season as he gears up for nine races in Formula 1. It’s a big change for the driver that a year ago was in Formula 3.

“A minute ago he went by bus to buy a salad in a supermarket. The Williams staff said to him: ‘But you’re an F1 driver, why don’t you take a taxi? And Franco said: ‘No, I’m going in my bus!’ And from the supermarket he goes again by bus to the hotel.

“He was in Grove because he has to do simulator work for Monza and on Wednesday he went to Italy.”

Next season, though, he’s likely to return to Formula 2 given Williams already have Sainz and Alex Albon locked in as their driver line-up.

“Motorsport is a very dynamic and constantly changing world,” Catarineu added. “”But it is true that Williams has its driver line-up confirmed for 2025. That may or may not change, that is no longer up to us but to the drivers themselves and whatever situation may occur.

“We are going to try to show the world what Franco is capable of. The goal is to open other doors for him. They may or may not open, we will see. We work day by day: now we only think about Monza, then Azerbaijan… if you focus on the present and have a good result, the calls come and things happen but only thinking about the present”.

“Williams has made a strong and long-term bet on Franco, but if there was an opportunity for Franco to prepare for a team that does have a seat available, I understand that there would be no problem.”

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