In the round-up: James Vowles says Franco Colapinto “validated” Williams decision to pick him over other drivers
In brief
Colapinto’s Monza drive “validated” choice
Williams team principal James Vowles believes Franco Colapinto’s solid performance in his grand prix debut last weekend in Monza proved the team were right to pick their junior driver over a more experienced alternative.
“Clearly the decision making is ‘do we use drivers that definitely had more experience than Franco does, that will come with their own positives, or do we invest in an academy that we’re putting not hundreds of thousands, but millions [of pounds] into because we believe in the future of the Academy and of Williams?’,” said Vowles in a video posted by Williams.
“The answer became very simply: let’s invest in Franco, let’s invest in the future of those that are giving us everything, that are coming up to the factory to make sure they’re helping us develop these cars. And within that simulation environment, they’re in a strong performance position. Let’s keep investing in that direction.
“I think the reward is what you saw in Monza. You can trust future generations of drivers. You can invest in them and get rewards on the back end of it. Franco is just at the beginning of that journey. He’s got a lot more room to grow into. He’s got a lot more performance to come. I think we’ve been validated by that decision.”
Leclerc eager to race Le Mans
Charles Leclerc says he hopes to race in the Le Mans 24 Hours in the future.“I’m really interested in doing Le Mans one day,” Leclerc said. “The Indianapolis [500] is not something that I’ve been particularly looking at – however, maybe one day.
“But Le Mans is definitely one of those races that I would like to compete in one day. I don’t know when, but hopefully soon.”
Camara overcomes jump start penalty to win
Ferrari junior driver Rafael Camara shrugged off a five second penalty for a jump start to still claim victory in the first Formula Regional European Championship race of the weekend in Monza.
Pole winner Camara held the lead at the start as fellow current Ferrari junior driver Tuuka Taponen and former Ferrari junior James Wharton moved up into second and third, respectively. Camara was then hit with a five second penalty for jumping the start, putting his win in jeopardy, but he sprinted away after a Safety Car restart to win by 8.2 seconds from Taponen, to hold onto his sixth win of the season even with his penalty applied.
Taponen and Wharton completed the podium. The win extends Camara’s lead in the series standings to 57 points.
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Newey commits to £30m-a-year Aston Martin deal (BBC)
'An Aston Martin source told BBC Sport that Newey has made a long-term commitment to the team, said to be a five-year contract worth up to a possible £30m a year, including bonuses and add-ons. The deal will be announced at a news conference organised by Aston Martin at their F1 base at Silverstone on Tuesday.'
Binotto on instilling the ‘Audi mindset’ and how long it will take his new team to win (Formula 1)
''After Ferrari, I think I would accept only a real challenge. Honestly, Audi was the only team I hoped to join, because of the challenge, because of the ambition, because it’s for Audi the very first time in F1. I’m lucky they call me. It had been very sudden. In a couple of days, we decided. It was simple. The opportunity was to be empowered for the entire project, full power – and that was what I was looking for. I’m so grateful and thankful for the offer – but as well very conscious how much there is to do.''
Aston Martin F1 team value soars as investors rev up stakes (Sky)
'Sky News can exclusively reveal that HPS Investment Partners, a US-based firm which manages roughly $115bn (£87.6bn) in assets, and Accel, one of the giants of the Silicon Valley venture capital sector, are on the verge of investing hundreds of millions of pounds into the team's holding company. Sources close to the sport said an investment by Accel and HPS was expected to value Aston Martin F1 at between £1.5bn and £2bn.'
Bruno Michel’s Debrief: A season of broken records and a look to the future (Formula 3)
'For the first time in F3 history, the newly crowned Champion takes the title without a single win. People can choose to focus on this odd fact, but what I see is a driver who has achieved a season without a single DNF – something no previous F3 Champion has ever done, having failed to score points only twice in twenty races.'
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Taking to the track for the first time in an F1 car! 🏎️
👏 @gabortoleto85 https://t.co/0ZNYEZtevr pic.twitter.com/xD77TpT9Uk
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) September 6, 2024
A proud family and some future engineers 💚🔧 pic.twitter.com/nXIszILc7q
— Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber (@stakef1team_ks) September 7, 2024
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Comment of the day
With Lance Stroll set to stay at the Aston Martin team his father part-owns for the foreseeable future, EffWunFan isn’t thrilled by the idea of potentially seeing Stroll in a title-contending car…
I don’t actively dislike Lance, though I do dislike the fact that he is still competing in F1. He is around 40th on the list of most F1 starts (sounds a lot but is only the tenth-most out of drivers that have competed this season), and there would be few – if any – higher on that list that have had a lower ‘best’ championship season. He does even produce the occasional drive that, if he were to do them consistently, would change my mind about him. Unfortunately though, I believe that these have been the best that he can give, and I strongly doubt he will ever string anything much better together race-after-race.
Of course, that does not preclude him being a championship contender in the right car, but at least most of the time in the past, these top cars have gone to more deserving drivers. (Note: I say ‘more deserving’ not the most deserving).
In short, if the day came that Lance won the world drivers’ championship, it would be the worst (championship related) day for F1, and I say that as a Hamilton fan who still cannot believe the events of 2021.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Kngs!
Nick T.
8th September 2024, 0:16
There weren’t really any alternatives, except for someone like Pourchaire. I looking forward to seeing what Fordapinto can achieve.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th September 2024, 6:02
Neither was Pourchaire.
Nick T.
9th September 2024, 0:36
Does Alpine own his services? Or was it Audi. Can’t even remember anymore.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
8th September 2024, 5:39
Well I am going to be the first to moan about today’s COTD.
The first part in parenthesis is not exactly what I said, or meant. However looking at my original comment it made little sense there either, so I understand the interpreted editing. Please just ignore that part entirely, or refer to the original thread where I ‘attempt’ clarification.
notagrumpyfan
8th September 2024, 9:03
A bit weird to edit a CotD, especially when it’s presented as a quote.
And when you do it, you need to make it crystal clear to the reader.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
8th September 2024, 9:10
To be fair it made no more sense in it’s original form. So for clarity, my ‘moan’ was about my own post’s legibility, not the editing.
Nick T.
9th September 2024, 0:38
Maybe my fault. I suggested they take selections of longer comments if they really liked them than only be limited to the entire comment, but looks like they took the whole thing and edited it.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th September 2024, 6:04
Indeed, but while he performed decently well for his debut, the next two circuits will test him more & thus show his potential better.
Sham (@sham)
8th September 2024, 7:05
Well, I disagree with COTD – if any driver can string together the results over a season with few enough mistakes to win a championship.. they deserve it. Even Lance Stroll.
I don’t believe that will ever happen, because I can’t believe that he can string a season together like that.
And there is nothing that I can recall happening in F1, ever, that can beat that one time when a race director took it upon himself to decide that the rules don’t matter in a situation that guaranteed that the man in second place should win the championship deciding race. And then everyone closed ranks around him to claim that his interpretation of the rules was valid. Truly F1’s darkest day.
And that was after a season of farcical stewarding decisions benefiting both drivers at times aimed at creating an artificially close championship.
JeroenJ
8th September 2024, 11:39
It didn’t guarantee it. It did help of course. But I think if Mercedes had changed their tyres Hamilton would have won.
Sham (@sham)
8th September 2024, 11:57
Let’s not go through this again – Hamilton didn’t change his tyres because the team knew that the race would finish under the safety car – because that what the rules said. Verstappen did, because that was the only move they had – and then the team started lobbying the (very weak) race director about ‘the show’. Don’t worry about the rules, eh?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th September 2024, 1:28
How did the team know the race would end under SC when ALL teams agreed to try and avoid a SC finish before the race started, in order to give an exciting championship finish?
They didn’t know it, they expected it might end under SC, obviously being ahead they had most to lose and deciced to not pit.
There was also the possibility to let lapped cars overtake few laps earlier and hence get a hamilton-verstappen situation with verstappen having new tyres while still according to the rules.
SteveP
10th September 2024, 19:42
Because the rules (which Massi broke) clearly state the restart unlap and “safety car in” procedure, and there were not enough laps remaining to follow the procedure and restart active racing.
There’s a reason Massi doesn’t have that job anymore.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
8th September 2024, 9:07
I understand that Vowles is only answering the questions put to him, put I detest the forceful statement answers that he gives. I didn’t think that Sargeant should have been in F1 at all but at the end of his first season he should have been dropped. One decent performance, at a track where Williams go well, and is well known to drivers and extremely straightforward is not vindication of the change. It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s merely papering over the cracks. Logan brought little in performance and incurred a lot of crash damage, it was a poor choice to retain him. Let’s give Franco a dozen races before commenting on whether it was correct to replace Logan.
The argument that swapping a hastily promoted Williams Academy driver for a hastily promoted Williams Academy driver, as they get time to grow, is ironic at best. They replaced an underperforming driver with anyone else that they could find, and who we know won’t race for them beyond this season. I think saying less is more in these circumstances – there’s no need to spin a positive on poor management, say nothing and give the team some breathing room.
MichaelN
8th September 2024, 9:41
Vowles must have one of the best press secretaries in the world, as his comments constantly get a lot of attention. Not bad for such a poorly performing team.
His blustering declaration that Williams’ upgrade meant they’d be fighting for 6th in Monza (i.e. be the 4th fastest team ahead of Red Bull) was also printed without any sort of follow-up. Which seemed very much warranted given how Albon only clung unto 10th by about a second over Alonso, and was only promoted to 9th post-race when Magnussen’s penalty was applied.
Monza is a pretty straight-forward track. Let’s see how Colapinto does at a bunch of others before making any sweeping statements about his performance; Sargeant could be pretty close to Albon when Vowles finally gave them equal machines, too.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th September 2024, 1:34
Good point, I forgot about that! I remember being skeptical about that declaration and was proven right by their car’s performance at monza.
Nick T.
10th September 2024, 2:45
I think Vowles is a good person to lead Williams’ return to true competitiveness, but like a lot of the Mercedes fun boys, he’s not easy to like. However, as long as he eventually gets Williams there, I don’t care. While Williams isn’t a top 5 team yet, credit must be given to Jost Capito and Vowles for bringing the team so far so quickly. It was really recently they had almost no big names on their engineer staff and being within a tenth of the 9th fastest team was considered progress.
Gerrit
8th September 2024, 9:12
It has been reported that Colapinto brings nearly 400,000 British Pounds per race to add to the Williams coffers. Vowles will love him for that. Quick 3 Million British Pounds profit for 7 races.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th September 2024, 10:17
That’s probably as a result of Franco’s signing, not the reason for it, as a lot of businesses from Argentina jumped onboard once he was confirmed (Mercado Libre being one).
notagrumpyfan
8th September 2024, 11:37
But they probably cannot count on, or have to refund, the significant funds the Sargeant family was bringing.
At least Colapinto unlocks money from independent sponsors who like to see an Argentinian in a seat and he gets some decent results on top of that.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th September 2024, 13:00
Gerrit Although to my knowledge, Vowles pointed out the opposite, i.e., that he isn’t bringing any sponsorship money a la a so-called pay driver.
Gerrit
8th September 2024, 23:41
If as mentioned in the above comments, if Argentinian backers are jumping on board (either before or after the signing), to give him money to pass onto Williams, he is a pay driver. Now the sponsors advertising bought in by Colapinto and on the Williams could have been paid for directly by the sponsors (a la Perez) but it still means he is a pay driver.
If Williams take him on board on a salary, thinking he is the next Verstappen, he is there on merit. Giving him only a seven race contract suggest he has serious backing money (thus a pay driver) and is not the next Verstappen.
Nick T.
10th September 2024, 2:47
It’s likely his family has a shell company that is paying his salary as a sponsor. Then there are real sponsors coming on board too. Ollie Bearman is bringing family money to Haas, but I don’t hear people calling him a pay driver.