General
Why Colapinto is not an option for Red Bull in sending Lawson away
- Ludo van Denderen
Barely two Grands Prix have been run and it is already looking more and more likely that Liam Lawson will be sidelined by Red Bull Racing. Yuki Tsunoda is the most logical candidate to become Max Verstappen's teammate in that case. Spanish speaking media hope that Franco Colapinto gets a role. A rumour about the Argentine has been circulating since Sunday, but there's no truth to it - according to GPblog.
A Spanish speaking journalist reported on Sunday that Colapinto should be Tsunoda's successor at Racing Bulls, following which media at home and abroad picked up this story. However, GPblog has learned that the arrival of the Argentine, currently under contract as a reserve driver at Alpine, is not an option at all.
First of all, Red Bull has not (yet) taken the decision to replace Lawson. Should it decide to do so in the coming days, Yuki Tsunoda is indeed the far and away leading candidate to replace the New Zealander. The Japanese is the most experienced driver apart from Verstappen under contract at the Red Bull group and it is hard to imagine that team boss Christian Horner and external advisor Helmut Marko would go for anyone else.
Certainly not for a young talent. After all, Lawson also seems to demonstrate that putting someone alongside Verstappen too soon in a team that is struggling and has an RB21 that is difficult to handle is almost doomed to fail. This makes going for Isack Hadjar totally illogical.
Interest in Colapinto just dashed
So a Spanish speaking outlet reported that Lawson should leave Red Bull altogether and Colapinto would succeed Tsunoda at Racing Bulls. At some point last season there was interest from Red Bull in Colapinto, who was then temporarily racing for Williams. That interest died down after a series of mediocre performances and crashes from the Argentine.
Only a reserve role at Alpine was attainable for him, hoping to become one of the regular drivers still during this season. Finally, Flavio Briatore of the French team is a fan of the Colapinto. Alpine is logically not planning to let the newly recruited Colapinto go already, because not only does this potentially strengthen its competition, it itself may need Colapinto at some point. In any case, Red Bull would probably have had to dig deep into its pockets to bring Colapinto in from Alpine, having already bought out Sergio Perez for a lot of money, and Liam Lawson is also bound to get money in case of dismissal.