Martin Brundle changed his mind about five-crash F1 driver who seemed to have a ‘great future’

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The 2024 Formula 1 season was especially brutal in terms of crash damage. Repair work hampered the development of strugglers like Williams, but also big-name teams like Red Bull and Mercedes.

Williams will ‘probably’ breach the 2024 F1 cost cap after a brutal succession of 16 crashes. They amassed seven-figures worth’ of damage at the Sao Paulo GP alone.

Elsewhere, Sergio Perez ‘held back’ Red Bull’s upgrades for the US GP with his accidents. Perez amassed a higher repair bill than any other driver on the grid, according to the Daily Mail.

And Mercedes had to cancel any late-season upgrade plans after a heavy shunt for George Russell in Mexico. They too were wary of exceeding spending limits.

Russell enjoyed an excellent season, comfortably beating seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, but he ended up third in the so-called ‘destructors’ standings’, behind Perez and Williams’ Alex Albon.

Logan Sargeant was fourth despite leaving Williams after the Dutch GP, with Carlos Sainz fifth in his final year for Ferrari. Pierre Gasly was the only driver not to damage his car, a commendable feat.

Martin Brundle’s immediate u-turn on Franco Colapinto after Las Vegas Grand Prix crash

Franco Colapinto’s position in the rankings above catches the eye. He only competed in nine out of 24 races after replacing Sargeant, but he still managed to climb as high as sixth.

Colapinto hit the wall in practice for the Azerbaijan GP, just his third race. While James Vowles would have preferred a more gradual build-up, it was an inherently hazardous circuit for a new driver.

Like Albon, he crashed out of qualifying in treacherous conditions at the Sao Paulo GP. According to his manager, Williams ignored Colapinto’s demands for wet tyres before he sustained terminal damage in the race.

But the crash that really hurt him came in Las Vegas qualifying. Martin Brundle hinted Colapinto would join Red Bull just moments before the accident, and his colleague Ted Kravitz noted that he quickly had to eat his words.

“Alex Albon had failed to get out of Q1, Franco Colapinto had got into Q2,” Kravitz recalled on the Sky Sports F1 podcast. “Had he completed that lap, he would have got into Q3.

“He was absolutely flying. I remember Martin Brundle saying ‘this kid has got a great future in Formula 1’. And then he does a Monaco swimming pool, dislodges the tyre, goes into the wall, writes off another chassis.

“And then Martin almost had to say ‘yeah, I’m not sure that’s going to do him much good, I might have to revisit what I just said’.”

The Williams rival who could offer Franco Colapinto a route back to F1 in 2026

Colapinto suffered a 50G impact at the Las Vegas strip circuit, having clipped the inside wall at the chicane at the end of the lap before scattering his car down the barriers. Some Williams mechanics were crying as they faced another late night, having just about made it to the race with two cars and a selection of spare parts.

Red Bull are no longer interested in Colapinto, whose incident with Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg at the start of the Qatar GP was his fifth and final crash of the season. He’ll almost certainly be a Williams reserve driver in 2025.

The Argentine could yet make a comeback. Alpine remain keen on Colapinto, a rough diamond who offers huge commercial incentives.

But as Kravitz notes, his error in Vegas, when he was set for a strong qualifying, has significantly hurt his stock. It truly came at the worst possible time for both driver and team.