Peter Windsor tells people why they need to ‘be careful’ about Franco Colapinto

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Franco Colapinto has enjoyed an impressive run of races since he took over at Williams from Logan Sargeant.

The Argentine has scored points twice so far at the Azerbaijan and US Grands Prix, although suffered his first retirement at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after crashing out 30 laps into the race.

His crash capped off a tough weekend for his team, with Williams racking up a crash damage bill that reached seven figures following another big crash for Alex Albon during qualifying.

Albon had been on course for a front-row start before a crash at Turn 1 ruined his chances of starting the race, in what was a condensed schedule after qualifying was run on Sunday morning due to the poor weather playing havoc on Saturday.

Colapinto also suffered a crash in the session and while the team worked hard to get his car ready for the race, it ultimately fell flat when he retired after crashing on the start/finish straight in the heavy rain.

Peter Windsor believes the crash serves as a reminder that Colapinto is still in the early stages of his career and compared him to another driver on the grid when speaking on the Cameron CC podcast.

Peter Windsor compares Franco Colapinto to Carlos Sainz

Colapinto will not have a seat at Williams next year, owing to the team already deciding to employ Carlos Sainz alongside Alex Albon for the 2025 season.

Windsor believes the recent run of races for Colapinto should remind people that the Argentine is still a rookie, despite making an impression in his first couple of races.

“We need to be careful here with Colapinto because he’s good, but at this stage of his career he’s nothing like what Carlos was at this stage of his career,” said Windsor.

“It was very clear that Colapinto is a Liam Lawson-type driver. He’s an oversteer and reflex-type driver, and we saw a lot of those guys who are not short corner drivers all making quite serious errors where if you touch the white line with load, you’re off.”

Franco Colapinto’s chances of getting a seat for 2025 F1 grid

Colapinto’s chances of getting a seat on the grid next year could be increased if talks with Red Bull develop over the next few weeks.

The Argentine has gained a lot of popularity, notably among fans who travelled to Brazil to support him over the weekend.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Williams driver Franco Colapinto with praise to stats

He is also sponsored by telecommunications company Claro, which is owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, a main backer of Sergio Perez at Red Bull.

With Perez’s chances of retaining his seat looking incredibly slim for 2025, Red Bull could plug up the gap by promoting Lawson and having Colapinto on their books at Visa CashApp RB.