Williams team boss James Vowles on Colapinto, Sargeant and McLaren ‘inspiration’

A key influence in Williams’ recent turnaround is the decision to sack Sargeant and employ Colapinto, a member of the Williams driver development programme who previously had been having a decent but not outstanding season in Formula 2.

Vowles had considered replacing Sargeant after an unconvincing debut season in 2023, but gave him a second chance.

But after lagging behind Albon all year, a poor weekend in Zandvoort proved the final straw. Sargeant crashed the car in free practice having put a wheel on wet grass on the straight, writing off all its upgrades, and then was uncompetitive in a rebuilt car in the race.

Vowles said that Sargeant had been warned “multiple times” not to damage the car before his crash.

“First and foremost, I think rookies get a hard time in our sport,” Vowles said. “They’re very easily judged by individuals.

“My job in all this, as it is with every team member, is for me to have their back so they can perform at the absolute best they can. And I will be the last person pushing them down. I’ll make a decision when you absolutely categorically have to make a decision.

“Once we had delivered a car to what I consider is a good-enough standard in F1, now you look to make sure that we have other elements that we change. And that case in point was Logan.

“Logan was given an opportunity with all the updates, with the clear brief that went into it. Both drivers had that brief. But at the point where it was very abundantly clear to me that we are not going to hit our targets this year, that’s the point at which I’m OK to make a change.”

Vowles’ decision to promote 21-year-old Colapinto was questioned in some quarters, but he says he always believed the Argentine would vindicate it.

“There is a reason why we put him in the car,” Vowles said.

“It was based off tens of thousands of simulator kilometres. It was based off a decision actually made much earlier to put him in the car (in practice at) at Silverstone, and based on the fact he, the right word, is he shone.

“And his attitude. Speak to him in the car and he’s talking like you and I are talking now. There is zero pressure of the world on his shoulders.”

Vowles does say that Colapinto’s consistency has surprised him – he says he expected him to be close to Albon when he made his debut at Monza, but that he would “step back just a little bit” in Baku and Singapore before “flying across” the forthcoming events in the US, Mexico and Brazil.

He says the fact Colapinto was so competitive with Albon in Azerbaijan and Singapore was “impressive”.

William cannot give Colapinto a race seat next year because they have already signed Carlos Sainz from Ferrari to partner Albon.

Vowles is trying to get his protege a seat at Sauber, which is morphing into Audi in 2026, and said: “What I can say is should he not get a drive, he’ll be kept very close to us, run in our historic car, keep him up to speed. We’ll have the best reserve driver on the grid while we build him into a situation for the future.”