Why Williams sponsors see ‘value’ in Logan Sargeant being replaced by Franco Colapinto

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Mid-season driver changes used to be a regular occurrence in Formula 1 but they’re much rarer these days.

Last season saw two swaps, with Daniel Ricciardo brought into the AlphaTauri team to replace Nyck de Vries before a hand injury saw youngster Liam Lawson jump into his seat for five Grand Prix.

Going into the summer break, several drivers were under pressure but they all made it to the Dutch Grand Prix.

However, Williams driver Logan Sargeant didn’t do himself any favours with his performance across the weekend.

A horrible crash in practice ruled him out of taking part in qualifying and despite starting ahead of teammate Alex Albon, he finished behind the Thai driver.

Speculation is now increasing about who could potentially replace Sargeant and speaking on the F1 Insider YouTube channel, journalist Ralf Bach shared what he had heard from the Zandvoort paddock.

Mick Schumacher appeared to have a good chance of replacing Sargeant after sitting on the sidelines with Mercedes and racing for Alpine in the WEC.

Red Bull’s demands over Liam Lawson make a move for the Kiwi tricky as he may be required by Christian Horner should Sergio Perez or Daniel Ricciardo fail to live up to expectations.

It means Williams junior driver Franco Colapinto now looks set to step into Sargeant’s seat.

Bach believes that Williams sponsors would see a lot of value in handing the Argentinian driver a debut at the Italian Grand Prix.

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

Williams sponsors would see value in Franco Colapinto replacing Logan Sargeant

Talking about the situation, Bach said: “It now seems to be clear that Logan Sargeant completed his last race for Williams.

“They need a new driver for the rest of the season because they want to have a replacement.

“He didn’t drive a bad race, but he just had this accident again in practice.

“Team principal James Vowles was of the opinion that he had risked too much and that cost so much money again. When you are so tight with the parts, that shouldn’t happen.

“There were many drivers involved in the speculation [to replace Sargeant]. Kimi Antonelli, who would have really made sense from Mercedes, isn’t taking the drive.

“So who is left or who else makes sense? Williams have a junior from Argentina who drives in Formula 2, Colapinto.

“There are quite a lot of sponsors there or let’s say the sponsors perhaps place some value on the youngster getting the chance, but it doesn’t make sense to put an inexperienced man in the car when you’re afraid that accidents will happen again and even more parts will be destroyed as a result.

“That’s one of the reasons why Vowles was so angry [with Sargeant].”

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Williams Racing from team principal to Mercedes relationship

Franco Colapinto impressed in his only Formula 1 outing this season

It looked unlikely that Colapinto would be given the nod but the prospect of an Argentinian driver being back on the grid would excite plenty of F1 fans in South America.

There isn’t a Brazilian in Formula 1 right now either although Gabriel Bortoleto is putting himself forward to race for Sauber next year.

Colapinto drove very well for Williams during his FP1 outing at Silverstone but handing a driver a race seat based on one hour of practice would be a huge gamble.

The 21-year-old is ahead of F2 rival and fellow academy driver Zak O’Sullivan while F3 star Luke Browning is still some way off being in the conversation.