Carlos Sainz under threat from ‘younger and cheaper’ Franco Colapinto for Williams future

Franco Colapinto receives congratulations for scoring first F1 points

Guenther Steiner has warned Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon they’re under pressure to retain their Williams seat with Franco Colapinto – “younger and costs a lot less money” – lurking in the background.

Colapinto made his Formula 1 debut at the Italian Grand Prix when he was called up to replace the beleaguered Logan Sargeant, who was dropped from the Williams line-up after one crash too many.

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The Argentinian driver impressed on his debut as he raced from 18th on the grid to 12th at the chequered flag, finishing four places behind Albon despite starting nine adrift of him.

He followed that up by doing what Sargeant could not do all season: scoring points at his second race in Baku where he was P8 having qualified inside the top ten. A near miss of P11 in Singapore showed Williams, and the rest of the paddock, that Colapinto can adapt to any circuit.

Former Haas team boss Steiner has been impressed with what he’s seen so far.

“I mean the great Alex Albon, the most talented driver after Michael Schumacher,” he joked on the Red Flags podcast, “comes a guy which nobody even knows how to pronounce his name. It’s like, all right, where’s this guy coming from?

“I respect Alex a lot, he’s a good driver, but you can see that this Colapinto… I didn’t have him on my radar. Nothing. Fair play to James Vowles, he discovered a very good talent there.

“The guy is coming in and almost beating or equal to Alex Albon, which we all know is a good talent, and the guy hasn’t got the seat next year.”

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Guenther Steiner’s warning to the 2025 Williams team-mates

Unfortunately for Colapinto, he arrived on the Formula 1 scene two months too late as Williams confirmed their full F1 2025 line-up at the end of July.

Having already locked Albon into a new deal in May, Williams announced Sainz would be his new team-mate as of next season, the Spaniard also putting pen to paper on a multi-year contract.

But such has been Colapinto’s impressive performances, Steiner reckons he could yet make a play for one of the Williams F1 2026 seats. After all, he’s younger and cheaper.

“I think Williams is going to look next year when Carlos is driving the second car, or the first car, whatever we want to call it, the other car, and then see where Alex is,” he added.

“And if they’re both equal, they will be like, they have Colapinto, who is 10 years younger than these guys, costs a lot less money, but he hasn’t got a drive.

“I mean, for them it’s a good position to be in, but I’m sure they try to find a place for him, or people must be looking at him, because of what he has shown. Yeah, he had a few little accidents, but, you know, always got out, got back on the track, boom, put it there again. It’s quite impressive.

“He’s there to show that he’s there to stay. And he did. In my opinion, he showed in the three races he did for Williams that he deserves to be there.”

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