A host of Formula 1 drivers will bid goodbye to their teams after the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and another may yet, too, as Ted Kravitz has claimed they are up for sale.
The F1 driver market fell silent between the 2023 and 2024 seasons but it has been a hive of activity throughout the year. History was made between the campaigns as no team changed their drivers over a winter for the first time ever. Yet at least eight are on the move this year.
Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes for Ferrari is the headline change to the Formula 1 grid for 2025. The Briton’s switch even forced Carlos Sainz to sign with Williams, while Audi replaced Sauber drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu with Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto.
Ted Kravitz claims Williams are ‘trying to sell’ Franco Colapinto with RB his likeliest team
Sainz will join Williams on an initial two-year contract after Ferrari elected against extending his terms to sign Hamilton. The Grove team went all-out for the four-time Grand Prix winner initially to replace Logan Sargeant, who Williams would ultimately axe mid-season in August.
Williams promoted their academy driver Franco Colapinto to replace Sargeant over the final nine rounds of the season from the Italian Grand Prix ahead of Sainz joining in 2025. But the Argentine’s results in the pinnacle of motorsport now have Williams trying to sell Colapinto.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Williams driver Franco Colapinto with praise to stats
That is according to Kravitz, who reports that Williams would sell Colapinto to ‘anybody’ and that Visa Cash App RB are the 21-year-old’s most likely suitor. But the Buenos Aires native is relying on Red Bull firing Sergio Perez and promoting Liam Lawson to find a home in Faenza.
Kravitz said on Sky Sports F1 (7/12, 17:32): “‘Colapinto, cut price?’ I’ve got here. They’re still trying to sell Colapinto’s contract from Williams to anybody who wants to run him, not least to RB.
“But the question is whether it’s [Isack] Hadjar or Colapinto at RB if Lawson takes Sergio Perez’s seat [at Red Bull] over the winter.”
RB signing Franco Colapinto could solve Williams’ financial problems
Sauber exile Bottas out-qualifying Perez for the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP this Saturday is now expected to be the last nail in the coffin of the Mexican’s Red Bull career with Lawson primed to move from Visa Cash App RB to the main team next term beside Max Verstappen.
Red Bull’s decision to part with Perez may be money to Williams’ ears at the ideal time. The raft of crashes Colapinto and Alex Albon have collected in recent races have helped to leave Williams needing a £20m loan. But selling the Argentine to RB would clear their cash issues.
After his bright start in Sargeant’s shoes, Red Bull offered Williams £15.5m to sign Colapinto as the Grove squad still have him under contract despite not having an F1 seat on offer until at least 2027. So, a deal for Colapinto to join RB may be an answer to both team’s problems.
But Williams – who are now the seventh-most valuable F1 team at £981m – might have to hope that Colapinto’s crashes in qualifying plus the race at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, in Q2 for the Las Vegas Grand Prix and in the Qatar Grand Prix have not put Red Bull off any deal.
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