Hi friends,
It certainly hasn’t been a quiet week – so let’s just jump right into it.
Top story of the week: Williams release Logan Sargeant, sign Franco Colapinto to replace him
When the cars hit the track in Monza tomorrow, it will be without Logan Sargeant at the wheel of the #2 Williams. Williams have released Sargeant with immediate effect, and are replacing him with F2 driver Franco Colapinto for the final 9 races of the season.
Why is this important? While most, if not all F1 experts agreed that Sargeant was in his last year in F1, there were split opinions on if he would get to finish the season. Now we have the answer. Sargeant had been decisively outperformed by teammate Alex Albon, and the repair bill after another shunt at Zandvoort seems to have been the deciding factor for Williams to make a change.
It was thought that either Liam Lawson or Mick Schumacher would grab the seat, but Williams surprised everyone by announcing Colapinto, a driver from their own academy. Colapinto is currently fifth in the F2 Championship, ahead of both Bearman and Antonelli, both of whom I expect to see on the grid in 2025.
Colapinto’s chances of a seat in 2025 are extremely slim however. Williams have already locked down their seats and I expect Mercedes to announce Antonelli very soon, which leaves the Audi seat as his only option – a seat which I doubt Colapinto is in contention for.
The rest of the stories this week:
- Jack Doohan signs for Alpine in 2025
- Flavio Briatore details the potential decision to end Renault’s F1 engine production
- Renault employees at the engine factory in Viry plan strike action during Monza race week
- Briatore says Renault chairman de Meo “never wants to sell the team”
- Mercedes confirms Kimi Antonelli will do FP1 with them at Monza
- McLaren are prepared to favour Norris in “50-50 situations”
- Haas equipment and cars were not allowed to leave Zandvoort until Monday afternoon due to an unpaid debt to former sponsor Uralkali
- F1 (still) considering a rookie sprint race at the Abu Dhabi post-season test
- Ferrari celebrates carbon fibre with custom race suits at Monza
- Oliver Goethe replaces Franco Colapinto at MP Motorsport in Formula 2
- Formula 1 partners with Aggreko to deliver low-carbon power solutions at all European Grands Prix from 2025
- NASCAR will race in Mexico City in 2025
- Juncos Hollinger wants to retrain Romain Grosjean for the 2025 IndyCar season, but he has other offers
- The Vanwall Vandervell 680 Hypercar will soon be ready to hit the track in WEC
- Former Formula E presenter, Jermaine Jenas, has been sacked for inappropriate behaviour
That’s it for this week. Until next time, thank you for being here.
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