Vowles: Colapinto faster than people realize

Vowles surprised everyone when he chose Colapinto to replace Logan Sargeant, who was out of his depth throughout his F1 foray; a crash in FP3 for the Dutch GP sealed the fate of the American.

Toto Wolff was pushing for Mick Schumacher to take Sargeant's place at Williams for the rest of the season, but Vowles did not cave in under the pressure of his former boss and went his own way with Colapinto.

And while Colapinto has not really set the world alight in F2 and F3, he delivered a solid weekend with Williams at the F1 race at Monza, qualifying 18th but racing to 12th, finishing only 13s behind his highly-rated teammate Alex Albon.

Kimi Antonelli, on the other hand, and despite the huge hype surrounding him, had a clumsy Mercedes F1 debut, crashing in FP1 at Monza, which did not affect the team's decision to sign him as Lewis Hamilton's replacement for 2025.

Speaking about Colapinto's F1 debut, Vowles said, quoted by Motorsport.com: "To finish within a few seconds of Alex, of which the delta was all made in the first stint, when he qualified out of position, is a good result.

"He procedurally got everything correct that he needed to; at the start he didn't lose position, he did a good job at the pitstop.

"Up to his mistake in qualifying, he was about within a tenth of Alex," Vowles pointed out. "That's the only mistake that anyone can put on him, and without that, I think he could have been fighting for a point on his first outing. So I'm very, very happy with everything that he's done and how he's built up into it."

Vowles explained why he chose Colapinto to drive for Williams for the rest of the season, he continued: "Part of the reason why he's in the car is his ability to cope with immense amounts of pressure.

"You still [need to] have natural ability to drive quickly, but he's not really flappable. We loaded him up with more information than a human being can take, and if you ask him now, he'll say that was definitely too much.

"But it didn't cause him to go into any other state than 'this is how I do things, and this is how I perform the best', and that's part of the reason why he's in the car.

"What I drove back to is this: he's faster than people realize," Vowles claimed. "You need to see it for yourself. It's based on what he did in Silverstone and what he's doing in the simulator, which sometimes doesn't always correlate, but there was good evidence to suggest as much.

"I believe in investing in [youth]. I was a graduate once and someone invested in me. And if you invest in the right individuals who have the right backing, you'll be surprised what you can get back from them," he maintained.

Vowles was then quizzed whether Colapinto can deliver any points from now till the end of the 2024 F1 season; he responded: "I would still say that there's every reason to be encouraged at how he's going to perform in Baku and Singapore and all the remaining tracks. I think he could have scored points if qualifying had gone well.

"A little bit is on us. We have to improve the car at the right rate, and there are more updates coming that will help us push more concretely into that point-scoring region.

"When the package is on the car, his chances become all the remaining races. But answering the question more formally, in Baku he still has a chance, but he has to be absolutely perfect that weekend, and I think it's too high an expectation to put on his shoulders," Vowles concluded.

Colapinto will now keep the Williams seat alongside Albon warm until Carlos Sainz arrives from Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season.