Franco Colapinto price tag ‘doubled’ claim made as Williams ‘want more’ for star driver
Franco Colapinto has joined Alpine for the 2025 season.
Having staked a €20million price tag on Franco Colapinto, Jack Plooij claims Williams have “doubled” it amidst interest from Red Bull and Alpine.
Promoted to a Williams race seat when the team axed Logan Sargeant, Colapinto has captured the attention of the paddock with two points-scoring drives in his six races.
A lot of money ‘has been offered’ for Franco Colapinto
Knocking on the door of the top ten in a further three Grands Prix, it wasn’t until the Brazilian Grand Prix that he came undone when he crashed in the wet, his first DNF.
That has done nothing to curb interest in the Argentinean driver as aside from Red Bull, a second team, believed to be Alpine, has also joined the race to sign him.
Williams are not willing to just let him go even though they’ve already confirmed their F1 2025 line-up with Carlos Sainz joining Alex Albon.
“When we signed Franco up,” team principal James Vowles confirmed to Sky F1, “it was on the basis that he was incredibly talented. And it’s a typical thing, the teams will put drivers like that onto a reasonably long contract.
“All we’re doing right now, all I can say right now is we’re looking at what options are available for him for the future, and we’ll hopefully have some news that we can talk about. But right now, there’s not a lot.”
Those options are said to be Red Bull, who want the driver outright, and Alpine, who according to the Times newspaper are ‘understood to be more open to the idea of a loan deal’.
And a loan deal may be the only way forward for Colapinto as Williams have reportedly “doubled” their asking price.
“A lot of money has been offered for him,” Ziggo pundit Jack Plooij claims. “That rich man, Carlos Slim, is also sponsoring him.
“But the amount I heard has long since doubled again, because they want more at Williams. It’s never going to work to loosen him there.”
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Franco Colapinto: I deserve my seat in F1
As for Colapinto, he not only doesn’t know what’s going to happen in 2025, but at the moment he doesn’t care. He only wants to make the most of this Williams opportunity and he’ll leave the rest in the hands of his management team.
“I’m not really thinking about my future and what is going to happen next year,” he told the official F1 website. “I trust the people around me. It’s the job of my manager to get me the best seat possible and the best opportunity that is in our range.
“I really trust them. They have done an amazing job since I started working with them. It’s something very important for them what I’m doing next year and they are working hard to achieve what they want. I have no idea what is happening. I really don’t know.
“The most important thing is I really don’t care. I just care about the opportunity I’ve got. I care about doing the best job possible, and to be ready race after race and challenge after challenge.
“My job is driving the car as fast as I can, to turn the wheel and do the best lap time possible. That’s what I’m doing. The job of the people around me is to get me the best seat possible. I rely on them, I trust them. I don’t even feel the need to go and ask them what the situation is with this one or this one.
“If I’m not in F1 next year, I hope to be making enough impressions to show that I deserve a seat here in the future. That’s my goal, to show everyone I deserve my seat in F1 and that I have to be here in the future. That’s been the goal since I started in F1 – and that’s what I’m trying to show race after race.”
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