After Logan Sargeant suffered a heavy crash during the third free practice session at Zandvoort and watched his Williams go up in flames, Formula 1 team principal James Vowles decided it was time to make a change.
On 27 August, Sargeant was officially dropped and replaced by Colapinto for the remainder of the 2024 season. At the time, the Argentine was still racing for Dutch outfit MP Motorsport in F2 and had only joined the Williams Driver Academy a year and a half earlier.
Having completed just one post-season test in Abu Dhabi and a free practice outing at Silverstone, Colapinto had very little F1 experience, meaning he was effectively thrown in at the deep end.
His debut resulted in a 12th-place finish at Monza, but afterwards many in the paddock watched with great interest to see how he would perform in Baku and Singapore, two of the most challenging street circuits on the F1 calendar.
Colapinto delivered, sparking a huge wave of excitement back home in Argentina.
“My example was quite a shock,” Colapinto admits almost two years later during an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com.
Colapinto scored his first F1 points during the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the challenging Baku City Circuit
Photo by: Williams
“I started my F1 career and in my second race I immediately got into Q3 and scored points. The third race was on a super difficult track in Singapore and I almost scored points again. Then I scored points in Austin, so it was an amazing start.”
That impressive start made Colapinto one of the hottest names in the paddock, which was exactly what he needed given that Williams had already finalised its line-up for the following season with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz, who had been replaced at Ferrari.
The Argentine needed to put himself in the shop window, but after his flying start he discovered that an F1 career never follows a linear path – including his own.
“Afterwards I had this crash in Las Vegas and suddenly everything was a disaster. Everyone suddenly forgot about everything!”
Under the floodlights in Las Vegas, things initially seemed to be going well once again. While Albon was eliminated in Q1, Colapinto progressed into the second part of qualifying, but that was where things went wrong.
He clipped the inside barrier at Turn 15 before crashing heavily into the wall with an impact of 50G.
“I do believe that you are as good as your last race but it was annoying that all the effort and good things suddenly came to an end because of just a rookie mistake. At the end of the day I was still learning.
“I had never driven an F1 car before, apart from half a day in Abu Dhabi. It’s not an excuse but it showed me how quickly things can change in F1, and sometimes that’s a bit annoying.”
Colapinto’s heavily damaged Williams car after his 50G impact in Las Vegas
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
“In F1 you have to change yourself a little bit”
It was the first time Colapinto experienced just how quickly public opinion can shift when constantly under the spotlight, but that is not even the main reason why he considers the crash to be the most difficult moment of his F1 career so far.
That explanation is linked to the driver market at the time. With Williams’ 2025 line-up already complete, Colapinto had to prove himself to other teams, but after his crash that suddenly became a much more difficult task.
Although Colapinto was cleared after a visit to the medical centre, the same could certainly not be said for his Williams, which was largely written off.
“I had to race with old parts for the last two races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi because after that crash in Vegas the car was destroyed.”
It left him in a difficult position during the final two race weekends in the Middle East. Colapinto was fighting for his F1 future, but knew he no longer had the machinery to do so.
“I’m sharing this example now because it has been the most difficult one for me. My time was running out, I didn’t have a new contract yet and then you want to do well to prove yourself.
“But suddenly you know that you can’t because you have a car that is three tenths slower. That was tricky for me, I think the trickiest experience so far, but all those things make you really strong.”
Colapinto had to settle for a reserve role at the start of the 2025 season, but returned to the grid after the Miami Grand Prix
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
It is part of the mental side of F1 that the public rarely sees – just like all the commitments behind the scenes – but those aspects made the biggest impression on Colapinto during his rookie season.
“The learning curve is shocking. To be honest, when I did my first couple of races at Williams, I was exhausted after every race weekend, simply by the amount of things I suddenly had to deal with.
“Those are the things no one sees. I think F1 is a beautiful sport and it’s what we dreamed of all our lives, but when you get there, a lot of things change and you also have to change yourself a little bit.”
Learned more in 2025 than in 2026
At the start of 2025, Colapinto had to settle for a role as Alpine’s test and reserve driver, but after the Miami Grand Prix he returned to the grid, this time replacing Jack Doohan, who had been under immense pressure from the very beginning.
The second chapter of Colapinto’s F1 career got off to a much more difficult start than the first, partly because Alpine had already shifted its focus towards the new technical regulations that arrived in 2026.
Colapinto insists, however, that he is now reaping the benefits of that difficult period, as well as the challenges he faced at the end of 2024.
“Last year, I understood many things and I grew a lot quicker as a driver. It was a hard time for me, but it has made me a lot stronger and mentally tougher.
“Even though it looks like I am improving more in 2026, I really believe that 2025 has been the year I’ve improved a lot more than what I am improving in 2026.
“That again comes from those difficult moments, difficult conversations, and times when nothing is working. Because when nothing is working, everything becomes very tense and very difficult. I always feel those are the moments that have made me improve the most.”
Colapinto has made significant progress since the 2026 Miami Grand Prix, but said he has learned even more from the moments “when nothing is working”
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
