‘Asked for the phone number’ – Franco Colapinto could be a surprise inclusion in F1 2025

Franco Colapinto could be a surprise inclusion in F1 2025, and “no” it won’t be with Sauber says Tom Coronel.

Sauber is the only non-Red Bull team with a race seat still available for next year’s championship but are said to be leaning towards retaining Valtteri Bottas or replacing him with Mick Schumacher.

Hope for Franco Colapinto for an F1 2025 seat

That, it was thought, meant Colapinto would be spending the 2025 season on the sidelines as a Williams reserve driver despite impressing since replacing Logan Sargeant for the final nine races of 2024.

The Argentinean has scored points in two of his four races with his tally up to five. Sargeant managed just one point in his 36 starts.

Unfortunately for Colapinto, his Formula 1 debut came two months too late as Williams had already locked in their driver line-up having signed Carlos Sainz as Alex Albon’s team-mate.

There is, however, fresh hope for Colapinto and it’s not with Sauber it would seem.

According to Dutch racing driver Coronel, one person from the 21-year-old’s management team, most likely Jamie Campbell-Walter, had contacted him to ask for an unnamed team boss’ telephone number.

For now, though, nothing is set in stone.

“He has nothing yet,” Coronel told Viaplay.

Told that Sauber is an interesting option, he simply replied: “No.”

Asked if he knew “something”, he replied: “Yes, but I’m not going to say it. It’s true, but I’m not going to say it.

“His manager is my old team-mate. I have contact with him every now and then. Suddenly a light went on because he asked for the phone number of a team boss in Formula 1.

“I didn’t think about that at all. I’m not going to say (who it is) because I keep some things to myself.”

How the F1 grid is shaping up

?F1 2025 driver line-up: Who is already confirmed for the 2025 grid?

?F1 2026 driver line-up: Lewis Hamilton and other drivers already confirmed for 2026

The two Red Bull teams are the only other outfits with open seats leading to speculation that should Liam Lawson perform well enough in his six-race audition to take Sergio Perez’s Red Bull seat, VCARB could be the team that Colapinto joins for 2025.

Speaking to Motorsport-Total after the Singapore Grand Prix, Marko praised Colapinto but stressed that he was a Williams driver.

“We see it with Colapinto,” he said, “as a relatively inexperienced and not very successful guy in the junior series, although it must be said that he never had the top teams, but what an incredible performance he is having now.

“I think he has a long-term contract with Williams. He will definitely be someone in the future. What he showed was very, very good, both in Baku and in Singapore.”

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