Martin Brundle shares how close Franco Colapinto has to be to Alex Albon after Monza

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Franco Colapinto made his first appearance in Formula 1 since taking the full-time Williams seat at the Italian Grand Prix in FP1 in Monza.

The Argentine has been called up by Williams for the remaining nine races of the season, replacing Logan Sargeant. The American had struggled significantly in F1 with just one point in 36 race starts.

His crash at Zandvoort seemed to be the tipping point for Williams, as Sargeant’s mechanics looked fed up with him after his accident cost the team dearly. With the 23-year-old getting the axe, Colapinto steps up from Formula 2.

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The announcement has been met with incredible support from fans and fellow drivers. Former Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello shared a message of congratulations to Colapinto before his debut F1 weekend.

The 21-year-old took to the track in FP1 at Monza and had a little moment towards the end as he got a snap of oversteer and went into the gravel at Parabolica. Colapinto finished the session in 17th, 1.2 seconds off of Max Verstappen at the top.

Martin Brundle expects Franco Colapinto to be ‘within a couple tenths’ of Alex Albon

Speaking after FP1 on Sky Sports F1, Martin Brundle highlighted where he thinks Colapinto ‘needs to be’ compared to teammate Alex Albon by the end of the weekend.

Albon considerably outperformed Sargeant in their year-and-a-half as teammates. The Thai driver outqualified Sargeant at every Grand Prix in 2023 and scored all but one of Williams’ points last year.

Brundle is not getting too excited about Colapinto’s arrival as he has to prove himself first, and after his first Williams outing, the pundit pinpointed where he needs to be compared to Albon.

“Well, he really needs to be, by the end of the weekend within a couple of tenths of Alex Albon. That’s where you’d expect to see him,” he said.

“I think it’s pretty tricky out there with the new surface. It rained on Wednesday night, it’s all very dirty, we’ve seen that in F2 and F3 as well.

“He’s had a couple of adventures, but that’s where he needs to be. He needs to be within a very few tenths of Alex Albon.

“As I said in the pre-show, it’s relatively easy to make these cars function and they’ve got enough experience and they know the track well enough. It’s getting on the pace and staying there, managing your tyres and then managing a car that suddenly has 110kg of fuel in it.

“All of those things, Formula 1 cars are bigger and heavier and the acceleration is immense. It’s not a great big Formula 2 car, it’s more than that and that’s the learning phase.”

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Can Franco Colapinto compete with Alex Albon?

Albon finished FP1 in eighth place, more than six tenths up on Colapinto. While FP1 timings are certainly not representative of the maximum performance of a car over a weekend, the positioning of the two Williams drives is perhaps as expected.

Albon has been with the Grove-based squad since 2022 and performed brilliantly in a car that can compete for points only on occasion. With Colapinto only having one F1 outing prior to this weekend, Albon is expected to largely outperform the Argentine.

With Williams’ new upgrades to the car that are hoped will propel the team to fight for points, Colapinto is in good stead to perform well. What matters now is if he can bridge a closer gap to Albon than what Sargeant could manage.

With great support coming from the team and his native Argentina, Colapinto will have firm eyes on him for the rest of 2024.