Hamilton Shares Advice For Colapinto Who 'Earned His Right To Be Here'

Friday, 01 November 2024 at 22:00

Lewis Hamilton shared a piece of advice for Williams's rookie F1 driver, Franco Colapinto, who still doesn't have a seat for the 2025 season.

Franco Colapinto replaced Logan Sargeant in Wiliams after the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix. Since then, five race weekends have passed, and the Argentinian rookie has already scored more points than his predecessor managed to do in 36 Grand Prix races.

In fact, Colapinto has been almost an equal match for his teammate Alex Albon, who Williams's team principal, James Vowles, considers a potential F1 World Champion in the right machinery.

Lewis Hamilton has already met with the 21-year-old F1 driver on track during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and the two shared a hard but fair battle.

The seven-time World Champion said about Colapinto as they sat next to each other during the press conference ahead of the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix:

"I think he's done an incredible job to, last minute, be called up and thrown into the deep end in this sport."

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"The majority of us, if we're lucky to get in the sport, we have a bit of a run-up, if you look at, for example, young Kimi [Antonelli], for example, he's got a lot of test days before his first race. I think he will have over 20 days or something in the car, which is unprecedented."

Colapinto didn't have much preparation for F1, as he didn't even expect to get a chance this or next season. However, the 21-year-old got lucky and was presented with an opportunity, and he is making the most of it at the moment.

"As for this guy, he didn't have that. So he just jumped straight in, and he did a fantastic job. It's always great to see young people and young talented individuals get the opportunity to come through and shine."

As it stands ahead of the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, only two free spots remain for the 2025 season - one in Sauber (future Audi) and one in RB.

While Franco Colapinto claims he probably won't be on the grid next year, Hamilton had a piece of advice that he wanted to share with him:

"I think he's earned his right to be here. There still is a seat available. And he's saying it's not for him to decide. My advice would be to make sure that it is. I'd be pushing on my side to make sure I was doing absolutely everything."

"At the end of the day he's got to just continue to focus on doing his job every weekend as he is. Hopefully he's got good people behind him who are doing the right job to make sure that he's here racing next year."