Franco Colapinto told he "can't cry" about missed F1 2025 seat

Franco Colapinto only has himself to blame for not securing a 2025 F1 seat, according to Jacques Villeneuve.

The 21-year-old Argentinian caught the eye of rival teams with some impressive early performances for Williams after he was drafted in as a replacement for the struggling Logan Sargeant with nine races to go.

Colapinto scored five points but a string of heavy crashes towards the end of the season took the shine off his early performances which resulted in Red Bull considering signing him for their second team Racing Bulls.

He ultimately missed out on a full-time drive for 2025 but has signed as Alpine’s reserve driver after Williams agreed to release him with no for him in their driver line-up.

But ex-Williams driver and 1997 world champion Villeneuve believes Colapinto ultimately damaged his chances of getting a seat on the grid.

“Franco Colapinto damaged his chances,” he told Action Network.

“If you are given the golden chance, it’s for you to make the most of it.

“He can’t cry about it. He got a few races out of this in F1.

“Not many people get that so it’s already impressive that he got that chance.

“I’m not sure what will happen with his future.

“He’s still a quick driver.

“But what he showed is he didn’t judge the situation really well.”

Colapinto may yet get a race seat in 2025 with his arrival at Alpine increasing the pressure on their rookie driver Jack Doohan, who was promoted to partner Pierre Gasly.

Villeneuve ‘surprised’ by amount of rookies

Six drivers will make their full-season debuts in F1 2025 - including four from last year’s F2 field.

Joining Doohan is Liam Lawson (Red Bull), Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) Oliver Bearman (Haas), Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) and Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls).

Villeneuve admitted he is surprised to see so many inexperienced drivers promoted to F1 at the same time.

“No idea what to expect out of Bortoleto, no idea,” he added. “Formula 2 has never been a good judge of drivers.

“So, it’s pointless until they get into F1 but right now they get into F1 with so little experience.

“It’s very difficult to understand how you can get to that top level in the biggest sport in the world so quickly at such a young age with so little experience. I find that quite surprising.

“They get a lot of simulator work, which allows them to be quick but then you also see what happened with Antonelli in Monza.”