Motor racing-Williams open to conversations with Sauber over Colapinto
By Rae Wee
SINGAPORE, Sept 20 (Reuters) -Williams would be happy to help Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto find a race seat in Formula One next season and are open to conversations with Sauber, team boss James Vowles said on Friday.
Swiss-based Sauber, who will become the Audi factory team in 2026, have yet to confirm their second driver for next season with several names in the frame.
Vowles told Reuters at the Singapore Grand Prix that he had not had any direct talks with newly-appointed Sauber boss Mattia Binotto, other than a conversation in Monza -- Colapinto's F1 debut after replacing dropped American Logan Sargeant.
"From our perspective, Franco is an incredible driver on the grid that is proving himself against Alex, who is a benchmark driver," said the Briton.
"From their perspective, if they wanted to, we'd be open to conversations around it. It's for them to decide, it's their decision for 2025 and beyond, but from my perspective, I think he'd be a very valuable asset."
Colapinto, 21, earned plenty of plaudits at last weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix where he finished eighth in only his second outing, qualifying ahead of established team mate Alex Albon who came in seventh.
The points catapulted Williams ahead of Renault-owned Alpine to eighth in the standings.
"Franco was an unknown entity, but we knew what he could do behind the scenes," said Vowles.
"If you look at his career, he's never quite had the time to even do practice sessions. He's always been in a team where someone has very kindly just financed him at the last second.
"But every time he's performed, and he's doing an exceptional job. He's worthy of his position in Formula One."
Vowles said Sauber, the only team other than Red Bull-owned RB yet to confirm their full 2025 line-up, had the luxury of waiting to see how Colapinto fares in his upcoming races before making a decision.
Formula One has six rounds of races, including three sprint events, after Singapore before the season concludes in early December.
"If I was them, I'd take the time to see how Franco performs against the next two races, maybe a little bit more than that, then make a decision," said Vowles.
Sauber's other options include their current lineup of experienced Finn Valtteri Bottas of Finland and China's Zhou Guanyu, as well as Brazilian F2 leader Gabriel Bortoleto, who is part of McLaren's driver development programme.
Separately, while in Singapore for the race weekend, Vowles and Peter Kenyon, Williams' commercial adviser, said they have also been engaged in talks with businesses in Asia on ways to promote the sport more broadly in the region.
"Asia's always been an important market, and it's going to become even more important in our view," said Kenyon.
"We're confident that over the next few years, there'll be more races coming here, which would benefit the region, benefit the teams, and we really want to be at the cutting edge of that, because we see the importance of this market."
Reporting by Rae Wee
Editing by Toby Davis
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