Sergio Perez’s ‘risk career’ warning to Franco Colapinto with F1 future undecided

Sergio Perez has warned Franco Colapinto of the risk of returning to Formula 2 next season should he miss out on the final F1 seat with Audi.

Colapinto made his Formula 1 debut at the Italian Grand Prix having been called up by Williams to replace the ousted Logan Sargeant, the Argentinian scoring points in only his second race as he brought the FW46 home in eighth place in Baku.

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Although that’s his only points-finish in his three races, he narrowly missed out on another top ten result in Singapore where Perez had to rely on strategy to undercut him for the final point.

The Mexican driver, who spent almost 30 laps looking at the Williams’ rear wing, told Red Bull over the radio: “He’s very good, difficult to pass.”

But despite his performances catching the attention of the paddock, as things stand Colapinto will not be on the grid as two months prior to his debut, Williams completed their line-up by signing Carlos Sainz as Alex Albon’s 2025 team-mate.

Williams team boss James Vowles is open to helping the 21-year-old secure the final open seat on next year’s grid at Audi but admits “interest is rather small”.

That leaves him with two options, either spend the 2025 championship on the sidelines as Williams reserve driver or return to Formula 2.

Perez has warned him against the latter as a trying season could hurt his reputation.

“I really hope for Franco that he’s able to find that Audi seat,” he told the media in Singapore. “For him it would be a shame after the job that he’s doing that he doesn’t get a seat for next year.

“That can risk his career going back to F2 and not having the straightforward year, having a couple of stalls with those cars. I think F2 has some work to do with their championship.”

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Colapinto is one of two Formula 2 drivers contesting F1 races this season as Oliver Bearman has also been drafted in, first by Ferrari and then Haas. He scored points in both races to become the first driver in F1 history to score points for two separate teams in his first two races.

Strangely neither was having an epic season in Formula 2 with Colapinto managing just one win for MP Motorsport while Bearman has two to his name but sits a lowly P15 in the Drivers’ Championship.

Perez says their troubles in the feeder series make it difficult to figure out just who are the really good drivers in Formula 2.

“I think they’ve done a great job,” he said of Colapinto and Bearman’s F1 performances. “Especially with F2, like when you think about it they’re not the guys winning, but then they come in and they do a fantastic job.

“You must think, like the guys that are winning earlier [are] out of this world. It’s hard more than that to understand which are the good drivers in F2, but I think they’ve done a tremendous job.

“But yeah, I think it’s great to see these young drivers coming in, being so confident and straight away delivering great results. It’s always great to see that.”

Asked if he was surprised by that, he replied: “I mean, these are very good drivers, and they’ve been doing that for their whole life. They’ve been with the teams for, I don’t know how many seasons, so they’re really up to speed.

“It’s not like the days when I started where you hardly had any communication with the F1 teams, and you were hardly in the meetings, you hardly drove a car.

“Now these guys, they are on the simulator all the day and they’re up to speed. Obviously it’s one good race, two good races. But it’s the consistency of tomorrow that will make you have a very successful career in F1.”

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