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Should Red Bull sign Colapinto or not? 'This is how you kill the hype'
- Ludo van Denderen
With another huge crash and leaving a heavily-damaged car to his mechanics, in qualifying for the Las Vegas GP, Franco Colapinto did himself no favours. The Williams driver is hoping for a seat for the 2025 season at one of the Red Bull teams, but they must be slowly wondering whether the Argentine is truely the huge talent he appeared to be once he arrived to Formula 1.
Colapinto took the F1 world by storm, there are no other words to describe the Argentine's first weekends as Logan Sargeant's successor. The youngster, previously racing for MP Motorsport in Formula 2, was a breath of fresh air compared to his predecessor: he scored points, put pressure on teammate Alexander Albon and, above all, he kept the Williams car in one piece.
The latter in particular has changed in recent weekends. In Brazil he already crashed his Williams twice, in Las Vegas Colapinto repeated that - surely to the horror of Williams' accountants. With the cost cap, Williams simply cannot afford to make hugely expensive repairs each time. It was precisely Sargeant's repeated crashes that were an important reason for Williams to sideline him.
Ralf Schumacher critical of Colapinto
And so now Colapinto is doing the same. In terms of his future, this is not good, as the Argentine is obviously hoping that Red Bull will give him a seat. Still, the Austrians too must have seen that Colapinto is in a difficult phase. Or as Ralf Schumacher said on Sky Sports Germany: "That's how quickly hype quiets down, if you overdo it."
Indeed, the opinion in the F1 paddock in Las Vegas was that Colapinto made a mistake, because he was too eager. And yes, of course Colapinto is young and inexperienced, every talent goes through a difficult phase at some point. But this should certainly not last too long for him, as there is bound to be another young driver somewhere who is 'The Next Best Thing' - like Colapinto was just recently.
Colapinto already is at a very crucial point of his still short F1 career: Can he to pick himself up at the last three Grands Prix of the season and be the Colapinto he was during the first events? Or will he remain the driver with mistakes? That might make Red Bull think twice about paying a hefty fee to Williams to make him a full-time driver for the upcoming season.
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sárközi
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