Williams boss James Vowles shares what has caught him ‘off guard’ about Franco Colapinto this year

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After a miraculous start to his Formula 1 career, Williams driver Franco Colapinto has an exhausted set of back-to-back triple headers to contend with at the end of the 2024 campaign.

The end of the F1 season can be gruelling, with Max Verstappen worried drivers will get ill again due to the demands put on them in wildly different time zones over the next two months.

Logan Sargeant – who was replaced by Franco Colapinto at Williams after the Dutch Grand Prix – had to retire to the Qatar Grand Prix last year due to the incredible demands put on drivers in searing heat at the Lusail.

Colapinto looked exhausted at the end of the Singapore Grand Prix although that didn’t impact his performance, pulling off a brilliant overtaking move going into the opening corner and missing out on a second points-scoring result by a matter of seconds.

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However, the Argentinian has done more than enough to justify Williams’s decision to make the mid-season driver swap and speaking on the Nailing The Apex Podcast, team principal James Vowles talked about how Colapinto had surprised him over the course of the year.

Colapinto has been helping test Williams’s F1 car in the simulator this year before finally getting to take part in an FP1 session.

Williams were impressed by Colapinto during an hour-long practice run at Silverstone and Vowles has now explained exactly what he did during that session that left him stunned.

Franco Colapinto left James Vowles ‘off guard’ during Williams practice session

Talking about the Argentinian’s promotion this season, Vowles said: “There’s a reason why we put Franco in the car.

“The surprise wasn’t when we put him in the car in Monza or Baku.

“The surprise was actually when we put him in the car in Silverstone.

“Silverstone is a hard track to learn for the first time, it’s one of the fastest on the calendar.

“He was near enough on the money on his first few laps through there [Maggotts and Becketts] and that’s surprising.

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“But that’s not where you adjudicate actually a driver, the way you adjudicate them is how are they on the braking, slow speed transitions, getting the car rotated because that’s the easy place to throw away a tenth or two.

“That’s where he was on the money straight away. That’s what caught me off guard a little bit.

“I thought, that’s better than I had anticipated for you. It was more reward for the step he had made but that was exciting.”

Vowles talked about how his progression in F2 and work in the simulator earned him the reward of an F1 seat, but his performance at Silverstone really did the trick for Colapinto.

Franco Colapinto jokes about why Williams are ‘going to kill him’ after recent comments

Colapinto isn’t just a supremely talented driver but also a fantastic character away from the track.

Argentinian F1 television ratings have skyrocketed since Colapinto’s debut and it would be a shame if he can’t find a way of staying on the grid next year with both Williams seats already filled by Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.

Colapinto has now joked that Williams are ‘going to kill him’ over comments about his official merchandise.

He’s not afraid to speak his mind and drives with a similar attitude on track.

Vowles will now hope that his impact alongside Albon can help Williams leapfrog Haas and RB in the Constructors’ Championship.