Christian Horner’s visit to the Williams garage in Brazil has sparked rumors about Franco Colapinto’s future, as he hasn’t signed a contract yet. Johnny Herbert shared his thoughts on the young Argentine possibly replacing Sergio Perez.
Perez brings lots of sponsorship money and fans from Mexico, which is a big reason for his spot at Red Bull. Herbert thinks Colapinto could do the same with support from Argentina. “What Sergio brings to the team in terms of sponsorship and whether Colapinto could do the same with his Argentine sponsors and that would work out,” Herbert mentioned to Vision4Sport.
Argentine fans are thrilled about having a Formula 1 driver from their country, showing excitement both at races and online. Herbert highlighted this by saying, “It’s exciting for Argentina to have a sports star who isn’t a footballer! Colapinto in Argentina has already been compared with Lionel Messi by some.” Even Argentina’s manager Lionel Scaloni was watching Colapinto during the Italy GP alongside an English Premier League match. That’s quite something!
Fans might wonder if Colapinto can truly replace Perez, given how much Mexican supporters love him.
Herbert admires Colapinto’s consistent performance despite not getting much attention from F1 teams before. He reminisced about his own experience, “In my day when I won F3, I got a couple of F1 tests and people were impressed. Nowadays they are so limited with the testing.” When Colapinto got his chance and impressed everyone, it was clear he had talent beyond just one good race.
Why choose Colapinto over Tsunoda and Lawson?
Herbert also considered other contenders for Red Bull’s top seat: Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson. “They have all proved they have that raw speed,” he said. Yuki took longer to shine but is now doing well, though unlucky in Brazil. Liam shows strong qualifying skills and race pace too.
Despite praising both drivers, Herbert believes Colapinto deserves the top seat more than anyone else right now. “The one I’d like to see is Colapinto who unlike the other two, hasn’t got a seat and he has more than earned the chance from what we have seen so far.”
What do you think? Could Colapinto be Red Bull’s next big star?
