Williams Racing driver Franco Colapinto goes into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with no certainty over his Formula 1 future.
Franco Colapinto’s F1 career started like a house on fire, scoring points at his second race in Baku before adding another point to his tally in Austin.
Williams will feel justified in their decision to promote Colapinto into Logan Sargeant’s car, although it has not been plane sailing for the 21-year-old.
A pair of crashes during the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend before a giant shunt in qualifying on the streets of Las Vegas highlighted Colapinto’s lack of experience.
He wasn’t at fault for the collision that ended his race at the first corner in Qatar, but the hype around the Argentine has died down somewhat in recent weeks.
Red Bull are no longer interested in Colapinto even if Sergio Perez might lose his F1 seat during the winter break.
However, that doesn’t mean Colapinto’s chances of being on the grid in 2025 have disappeared.
Julianne Cerasoli was speaking on the Pit Pass F1 Podcast about his future and believes talks are still going on behind the scenes that could see the 21-year-old on the grid next year.
Alpine – who have a single F1 win to their name – have made the final driver change of the year at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, bringing in Jack Doohan to replace Esteban Ocon.
Doohan already has a contract for 2025, but Cerasoli believes Flavio Briatore is evaluating the Australian this weekend to determine whether he or Colapinto should be in the car alongside Pierre Gasly next year.
Flavio Briatore wants to ‘get rid’ of Jack Doohan for Franco Colapinto at Alpine next year
Talking about the driver market situation, Cerasoli said: “Speaking about Alpine, I keep hearing that Colapinto is not out of the picture at all for 2025.
“And that Flavio Briatori is actually looking for a way to get rid of Jack Doohan.
“The whole fact that Doohan is doing his first race in Formula 1 in this Grand Prix is to evaluate knowing that he’s not going to be good enough, so it would be an excuse for Flavio to drop him.
“Flavio is being very active in the paddock, talking to everyone and it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Williams driver Franco Colapinto with praise to stats
“Of course, for that to happen, Williams would need some money, so it’s not a cheap thing for Flavio to do.
“But I’m really not thinking that Colapinto is completely out of the picture.
“And during this Friday, many times I kept hearing, oh, did you hear about Colapinto? Do you know what Flavio is doing? So let’s watch out for that.”
Alpine driver Jack Doohan left in a tricky position ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix F1 debut
Doohan has been an Alpine young driver for years and more than deserves his chance to prove he’s good enough to race in Formula 1.
Team Oliver Oakes has outlined the expectations on Doohan in Abu Dhabi, but ultimately, judging a driver on one race is never a wise decision.
While that thought process earned Nyck de Vries an AlphaTauri seat in 2023, the team ended up having to drop the Dutchman halfway through the campaign.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Colapinto is an attractive prospect commercially for Alpine given the millions in sponsorship he would bring and the huge fan base in Argentina he’s mobilised.
He deserves to stay in F1 based on the promise he’s shown, but he’s not set the world alight like other rookies have.
Briatore is notorious for being cut-throat in F1 and if he senses an opportunity to make a change in his driver line-up then he won’t hesitate.
Doohan starts the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last, but a compromised final run in Q1 has to be taken into account when looking at his grid position.
