James Vowles vows Franco Colapinto will be ‘back to Williams’

Last Formula 1 season Franco Colapinto catapulted into stardom.

Named as a midseason replacement at Williams for Logan Sargeant, the young driver impressed in his first races on the grid. Colapinto finished 12 in his debut in Monza and then finished in the points in both the Azerbaijan Grand Prix (where he finished eighth) and the United States Grand Prix (where he finished tenth).

However, a seat at Williams for 2025 was not in the cards for the Argentine driver. With both Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz Jr. signed to “multi-year” deals with the team, any chance Colapinto had at securing a full-time seat for 2025 would have to come from another team.

But when those available seats went to other drivers, Colapinto was left on the outside looking in when the music stopped on the game of F1 driver musical chairs.

That led to a surprise announcement from Alpine. Despite signing reserve driver Jack Doohan to fill one of the open spots, made available when Esteban Ocon signed to drive for Haas in 2025, Alpine added Franco Colapinto as a reserve driver heading into this season. In their January announcement, Alpine Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore described Colapinto as one of the “best young talents” in the motorsport world.

“We are very pleased to come to an agreement with Williams Racing to sign Franco Colapinto. Clearly, Franco is among the best young talents in motorsport right now. It is fair to say his appearance on the Formula One grid last year caught many, me included, by surprise and his performances have been very impressive for a rookie driver,” said Briatore. “We have an eye on our future and his signing means we have a great pool of young drivers to call upon and work with in developing the team for future success.”

Williams Team Principal James Vowles addressed the move on Friday, as the team launched their challenger for the 2025 season. Speaking to the media at Silverstone Vowles indicated that the move was a loan and that he believes Colapinto will be back at Williams in short order.

“There’s a period of time whereby I hope he is racing for Alpine. The reason why we did this is that I wanted him to be racing in ’25 and or ’26. The best chance he has is with Alpine, as far as getting on the grid, that’s why he’s there,” said Vowles.

“And I don’t mean that to the detriment of Jack [Doohan]. I hope Jack has a successful time. But ultimately, Franco is my driver that I want back in that car. After a period, he will return to Williams. That period is not a line set in stone where I can look you in the eye and say it.

“But I can say he’ll be back to Williams at some point.”

While the move seemed to put Doohan — who finished outside the points for Alpine in his debut in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix — under immediate pressure Alpine Team Principal Oliver Oakes dismissed that notion earlier this year. Speaking on the James Allen on F1 podcast, the Alpine boss insisted that Doohan would get a “fair crack” this season.

“It’s been a little bit harsh on Jack, some of the stuff that was written by the keyboard warriors there, and he’s getting his fair crack at it next year,” began Oakes.

“And I think the intention there isn’t to put [pressure] on his shoulders. It’s genuinely to give the team options further down the line. And for me F1 is fine margins. There’s a load of people who are depending on a driver to deliver each weekend, and we need to make sure we’ve got the best drivers in the race car, not just now, but also in the future.”

Alpine’s addition of Colapinto makes sense not only to give the team a driver with experience should something happen to Doohan or Pierre Gasly, but also fits with Oakes’ own background of driver development.

But if he cannot find his way to the grid with Alpine, it looks as if he will get another shot at Williams in the future.