Franco Colapinto says he doesn’t “know what’s wrong” with Oscar Piastri after colliding with the McLaren driver in the early stages of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

With Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon contracted to race for Williams for F1 2025, Colapinto made what is likely to be his last F1 appearance for some time in Abu Dhabi last weekend.

Franco Colapinto: ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with’ Oscar Piastri

Additional reporting by Pablo Hidalgo and Thomas Maher

The Argentine won many admirers after replacing Logan Sargeant ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, scoring points in two of his first four starts in Azerbaijan and the United States.

Colapinto’s instant impression saw him attract interest from a number of teams including Alpine and Red Bull, where he was briefly mentioned as a candidate to replace Sergio Perez for F1 2025.

However, a number of incidents in the closing weeks of the season saw both teams cool their interest in Colapinto, who is now expected to serve as Williams’ reserve driver next season.

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Colapinto saw his hopes of ending F1 2024 on a high disappear when he retired after 26 laps with a suspected power unit failure.

The engine issue came after the 21-year-old suffered a puncture and damage to his diffuser in a collision with Piastri, recovering through the field after being spun from second place by Max Verstappen at the first corner.

Speaking after the race, Colapinto took aim at Piastri for the collision on the back straight before pointing to his struggles in passing Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda.

He told DAZN Spain: “It wasn’t the end of the season I wanted.

“Piastri crashed into me. I don’t know what’s wrong with this guy. He hit me at Turn 6 and then a few other people, I think?

“He spent five laps trying to overtake Tsunoda – the poor guy was two seconds slower and couldn’t pass him.

“Anyway it’s a pity because I think that’s where the race got complicated for us.

“After changing the tyres because of the puncture I had a good pace despite the damage to the diffuser.

“I wanted to finish the race and finish with a smile on my face, but that’s part of F1.”

Colapinto went on to tease that there will “surely be opportunities” to return to F1 in the future, with the Buenos Aires-born star planning to return to his homeland to reflect on his Williams cameo appearances over the winter.

He said: “It wasn’t the end I was hoping for.

“It’s a pity because I would have liked to finish on a positive note. I think I had a good pace for today.

“We have to keep our heads up and look forward. Surely there will be opportunities in the future.

“A bad run. Unbelievable the bad luck we had in the last few races.”

‘The next thing is to go back to Argentina, with my family and forget about all this bad run and bad luck we’ve had lately.”

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com in Abu Dhabi, Colapinto claimed that he has done “a pretty good job” in his unexpected Williams cameo, offering his gratitude to the Williams hierarchy for the opportunity.

He said: “It was very exciting. It was my dream come true.

“And since I started in Monza, I knew a lot of things had to happen and I had to learn a lot and I had to keep moving forward.

“And I think when you look at the bigger picture that doesn’t happen many times in F1. You are as good as your last race and I think that’s how Formula 1 works.

“Looking at the bigger picture, I think I did a pretty good job. I tried to maximise the opportunity that Williams gave me. It was an incredible chance and I think something I respect a lot.

“James [Vowles, team principal] and Sven [Smeets, sporting director], everyone in the team, put the confidence and the trust to give me a seat and to give me that opportunity.

“I think Vegas was quite tough. Being tough on me, I think, it was a pretty big mistake going for it in the last lap in quali, trying to put the car in Q3.

“That’s where I look back and I just think that some mistakes could have been avoided, but I think looking at the overall picture and the experience was my dream come true. Very excited to see where the future departs.”

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