Stepping up to drive in a Formula 1 session for the first time is a nerve-wracking experience and occasionally the talent that’s clear to see in junior series goes out the window when racing on the same track as some of the greatest drivers in the history of motorsport.
The lack of rookies on the grid this season has added further emphasis to the Free Practice 1 sessions that take place at each Grand Prix.
It’s one of the only opportunities each team has to run their reserve and test drivers in this year’s cars with a ban on testing any 2023 and 2024 F1 cars away from race weekends.
Liam Lawson was handed a rare chance to drive this year’s Red Bull during a filming day, but that was a run limited to just 200km of action.
At Silverstone this year, four young drivers were handed their chance during the hour-long FP1 session.
Isack Hadjar didn’t have the easiest time in Sergio Perez’s Red Bull despite his phenomenal Formula 2 campaign this year.
Alpine handed another opportunity to Jack Doohan after his washed-out session in Canada earlier in the season.
Doohan is in contention to replace Esteban Ocon at Alpine but might need to do more in any future outings with the team.
Oliver Bearman’s future at Haas is already sealed and he got a taste of what driving at his home race will be like next year.
However, speaking on The Race Members’ Club Podcast, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm was discussing Franco Colapinto’s debut for Williams.
Colapinto was the first Argentinian to take part in a Formula 1 session since Gaston Mazzacane.
An Argentine driver hasn’t scored a point in F1 since Carlos Reutemann nearly 40 years ago, but Colapinto’s performance in FP1 might have given team principal James Vowles something to think about.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Williams Racing from team principal to Mercedes relationship
Franco Colapinto impresses for Williams in FP1 at Silverstone
Discussing the 21-year-old’s debut at the British Grand Prix, Mitchell-Malm said: “Silverstone for the British Grand Prix FP1, I listened to a lot of the rookie drivers because there were four stand-ins in FP1.
“One that interested me was Franco Colapinto in the Williams who was very good with his technical feedback but was a real chatterbox.
“On his cooldown laps, those radio messages really lingered but not to the point where he was distracted.
“I was quite impressed by the fact that when he was doing in-laps, his messages were going on so long that they would often be cut out by the race engineer telling him, [Max] Verstappen at five seconds, that kind of thing.
“They’d given him, not a conundrum but they had given him a, ‘If we did this, what would you do on the front wing?’
“So that gave him a couple of scenarios to talk through but what was really impressive was just that, he would get the message that suddenly there was this traffic and then he would react to the traffic really sensibly and then he’d just carry on talking.
“The awareness and the capacity he had was clearly like mega.”
Franco Colapinto putting himself in the frame for 2025 Williams seat
Alex Albon is already confirmed as one of Williams’s two drivers for next season, although Logan Sargeant is expected to leave Williams before next year.
Valtteri Bottas is currently the favourite to join Williams next year if Sargeant departs but he’s of interest to several other teams on the grid.
That could open up an opportunity for Colapinto who Jenson Button thinks has a real shot of driving for Williams after what he saw at Silverstone.
He’s currently 5 in the Formula 2 Drivers’ Championship and it speaks volumes that he was given his chance at Silverstone ahead of Zak O’Sullivan who would have been the more sentimental choice.
Williams sporting director Sven Smeets told The Race: “If I look [at] how Franco went on Thursday, when he came to the engineering briefings with us, how he worked with Logan’s engineer, how he handled that week starting from Monday morning, he did very well.
“We were impressed by how calm he stayed during it. He did very well, I am very pleased.”
It’s an encouraging assessment of the 21-year-old’s performance and he’ll hope he’s given another chance to drive in FP1 before Williams make a final decision on Albon’s next teammate.
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