Logan Sargeant out, Franco Colapinto in at Williams for final nine races

Williams have decided to replace Logan Sargeant for the remainder of the season, with junior driver Franco Colapinto promoted for his Formula 1 debut.

The 21-year-old, who had been running sixth in the Formula 2 standings, has been a Williams junior since early 2023, and will now step up to a race seat.

Logan Sargeant out, Franco Colapinto in at Williams

The Argentinian driver has already had a taste of Formula 1 experience, having taken part in last season’s young driver test in Abu Dhabi for Williams, and he made his FP1 debut for the team at Silverstone back in July – making him Argentina’s first driver to take part in a Grand Prix session since Gastón Mazzacane in 2001.

Sargeant came under further pressure at the weekend after a huge crash in FP3 saw him miss qualifying while his Williams mechanics repaired his car, before finishing 16th in Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix, which marked his last race with the team.

Now, Colapinto will step into the breach for his Formula 1 debut at Monza this weekend.

“It is an honour to be making my Formula 1 debut with Williams – this is what dreams are made of,” Colapinto said.

“The team has such amazing history and a mission to get back to the front which I can’t wait to be part of.

“Coming into F1 mid-season will be an enormous learning curve but I am up for the challenge, and I’m fully focused on working as hard as I can with Alex and the team to make it a success.”

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Mercedes and Red Bull team principals Toto Wolff and Christian Horner had both offered their respective reserve drivers, Mick Schumacher and Liam Lawson, to Williams as a potential replacement for Sargeant, but the team opted to promote from within instead.

PlanetF1.com understands representatives for Lawson had been in talks with Williams over the possibility of a drive, but team principal James Vowles wanted assurances that the Red Bull reserve would be available for the whole of the rest of the season, whereas Horner would only loan him out on the pretence of being able to call him back in the event of one Red Bull or VCARB’s seats becoming available.

For Schumacher, Wolff said he would have been “cheering for” such an opportunity for his reserve driver with Williams, given that Formula 1 has not seen the “real Mick”, in his eyes, while also ruling out a possible loan for junior driver Kimi Antonelli.

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