Williams Racing driver Franco Colapinto appears to have missed out on securing a race seat for 2025 ahead of Formula 1’s upcoming season finale.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will see one last change to the F1 grid, with Jack Doohan replacing Esteban Ocon at Alpine.
The Australian becomes the third rookie to make his debut this year, after Oliver Bearman for Ferrari and Haas and Franco Colapinto for Williams.
There was also a return to action for Liam Lawson at RB after he stepped into Daniel Ricciardo’s seat for the final six races of the year.
All of these young drivers have proven that they can hold their own which has seen a shift take place in the driver’s market for 2025.
Alongside Bearman and Doohan, Kimi Antonelli and Gabriel Bortoleto will also be promoted from Formula 2, and another rookie Isack Hadjar could end up at RB to join them.
This leaves Colapinto set to miss out on a seat next year with Williams already confirming Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz as their partnership for next year.
A report from The Race has now shared how close Colapinto came to a move to Red Bull or their sister RB team next year.
Unfortunately, the early hype around his performances was tempered after the past few races.
Franco Colapinto had terms ‘agreed’ with Red Bull over 2025 race seat
The report from The Race suggests that Colapinto met with senior figures at both Red Bull and Alpine after his brilliant start to life at Williams.
He scored his first points in Baku and had the fastest lap of the race in Austin on his way to a 10th-place finish before Esteban Ocon pitted specifically to steal it from him in the closing stages.
Ocon apologised to Colapinto for doing so, but that represented the last time Colapinto managed to achieve a top-10 finish.
The terms of a deal with Red Bull were said to have been ‘agreed’, however, they came with certain conditions.
Colapinto had to ‘hit certain performance parameters’ which means he needed to beat or match the performance of teammate Alex Albon.
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Red Bull’s intention was for him to drive for RB next year, alongside either Yuki Tsunoda or Lawson depending on which driver was promoted into Sergio Perez’s seat.
They believe that the Argentine was even a ‘left-field’ candidate to drive alongside Verstappen depending on how strong his performances were.
Why Franco Colapinto eventually missed out on a 2025 Formula 1 seat
Unfortunately, after speculation surrounding Colapinto in the paddock peaked around the Mexico City Grand Prix, he made a collection of errors that cooled interest in his services.
Colapinto crashed twice during the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend, once in qualifying before hitting the barriers in torrential conditions during the race while trying to warm his tyres up.
The 21-year-old then had a huge shunt in qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, putting more pressure on a Williams team who are short on spare parts and getting close to the cost cap.
This was also the crash that ‘cemented’ in Red Bull’s mind that Colapinto would be too much of a risk to place in either of their cars next year.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Williams driver Franco Colapinto with praise to stats
Finally, a sluggish Qatar Grand Prix where he didn’t start the weekend with the same specification car as Albon finished at the opening corner.
Although Colapinto was in no way at fault for the collision during Sunday’s Grand Prix, it prevented him from impressing any would-be suitors.
Colapinto has serious commercial support and raw pace which means he deserves another shot at Formula 1.
He’s on a long-term deal at Williams and will be their reserve driver next year, however, he’ll have to settle for a role on the sidelines until a vacancy pops up on the grid once again.
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