Williams boss ‘taken aback’ by Franco Colapinto with Albon sim comparison revealed

Williams team principal James Vowles admitted to being “taken aback” by the pace of Franco Colapinto in his FP1 outing at Silverstone in July, and revealed his pace in the simulator is equal to that of Alex Albon.

Colapinto was promoted to a race seat to replace Logan Sargeant for the remainder of the season, making his Formula 1 debut in the process and scoring points in only his second race, in Azerbaijan.

How Franco Colapinto left Williams ‘taken aback’ after FP1 showing

The 21-year-old Argentinian driver was picked over ‘loan’ options from Mercedes of Mick Schumacher and Kimi Antonelli for the remainder of the year, with Vowles trusting the Williams junior to perform as the team go in search of crucial World Championship points.

But having seen his pace in the Williams simulator and how he adjusted to life in Formula 2, Vowles believed his academy driver was the right option to replace Logan Sargeant when the time came to do so.

In explaining Colapinto’s rise to Formula 1, Vowles told the Beyond the Grid podcast: “First of all, the reason why we put him the car. A), he’s part of our academy, and I believe in investing in our academy.

“It was a surprise to everyone, but if I ask everyone to dig back through his career properly in the detail that we did, which is why he’s here, you’ll see that he never had testing, or sometimes not even simulator work that went with it.

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“So he went wherever finance led him to, and when he was in those teams, did an incredible job without any kilometres under his belt, got into Formula 2, started really developing in that Formula 2 year, which is why we rewarded him with the Silverstone drive – and I was a little bit taken aback how quick he was, immediately out of the post.

“And I spoke to him about it. He was very relaxed, he said, ‘Yeah, it may never happen again, so I was just enjoying the moment.’

“In the simulator, he’s the same pace as Alex, and it’s a good simulator, so we’re able to compare where we are here, but you’re never quite sure if that’s going to translate.

“So I knew he’d be quick. What I didn’t expect is how quickly he’s got up to speed, and I thought it would take him another few races to be there, so it [would] be in the Americas before he picked up.

“Where his strengths are. Him personally, he can take all of this pressure, the thousands of things that come at you, and just deal with it in his stride.

“He’s never flustered, he’s never panicked, he’s never overloaded. He’s just, ‘give me more and I can give you more back.’”

Another of Colapinto’s qualities that has been evident in his dealings with the media so far is his openness and willingness to engage, which has extended to members of his team, as Vowles elaborated further upon.

“We had a team talk for the first time with him in Monza, and he said, ‘Well, what should I say?’ I said: ‘Speak from your heart, you’re good at it, just talk to people.’” he explained.

“And he did. And there’s two things I would completely say: He was at home. He had a captive audience of the entire race team that wanted nothing but success for him – but I did have to break into his dialogue about four minutes in, because we were going to run out of time.

“Because he talks from the heart, there’s a lot of it. But he is at home.

“You don’t get this relaxed very quickly unless you’re so confident in what you’re able to do. And he’s thankful, incredibly thankful for this opportunity.”

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