Guenther Steiner warned Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon that they are under pressure to secure their Williams seats due to Franco Colapinto. Colapinto was brought in to replace Logan Sargeant, who was dropped from the Williams lineup this season.
The Argentine driver impressed by moving up from 18th to 12th place in his first race, finishing just four spots behind Albon, who started nine places ahead of him. In his second race in Baku, he scored points by finishing 8th and narrowly missed 11th place in Singapore.
Steiner, the former team principal of Haas, has been very impressed with what he has seen so far. On the Red Flags podcast, he said, “I have a lot of respect for Alex; he’s a good driver, but Colapinto is doing a great job. We must give credit to James Vowles for discovering such a good talent.”
“A guy comes in and is almost beating or matching Alex Albon, who we all know is a good talent. Yet he doesn’t have a seat.“
In May, Williams signed a new deal with Albon and announced that Sainz would be his new teammate starting next season with a multi-year contract.
However, considering Colapinto’s impressive performance, Steiner believes he could be in contention for one of the Williams F1 seats in 2026.
“Williams will evaluate the performance of Carlos and Alex next year. If both are equal, they might consider the 10-year-younger Colapinto.”
“I think Colapinto has shown in all three races he has participated in for Williams that he deserves to be there.”
