If your cars are fickle, your career can also be fickle in motorsports. The Red Bull racing team in F1 recently opened up a spot for the 2025 season. Although Sergio Pérez signed a contract extension earlier this year, team boss Christian Horner changed that narrative, as Pérez will no longer drive his car after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday. But the big question arises – who will replace this Mexican driver?

A few options are on the table – like RB’s Liam Lawson, who replaced Ricciardo at the U.S. Grand Prix. A second option is Franco Colapinto from Williams Racing. However, the second alternative is no longer a possibility, considering the hefty damage Colapinto has caused his team this year, causing them to eat into their future budget.

Red Bull takes a step back

Sergio Pérez himself whipped up a reputation for lackluster performances this year. He failed to finish inside the top six since the Miami Grand Prix in May. Pérez is also a staggering 227 points behind Verstappen. This is the largest margin between a world champion and that driver’s teammate in a season under the current points system. So Redbull is consciously filtering out its options for replacing the Mexican speedster. The first to get off their checklist is Williams Racing rookie Franco Colapinto, although he looked like a strong candidate a few weeks ago.

Journalist Adam Stern updated on X about the situation: “@RedBull was pursuing Franco Colapinto for a ride next year before his “expensive” crashes at Brazil and Las @Vegas caused the organization to change course, per@ESPN.” Indeed, Colapinto’s wreck fest this year has scared Red Bull. During the Las Vegas GP qualifying, the 21-year-old driver encountered a heavy crash and was lucky to escape unharmed following a 50G impact. In Brazil, the entire Williams team was cursed. Both Colapinto and his teammate Alex Albon crashed out of a rain-affected qualifying session. While Albon’s car was unable to be repaired in time for the race, Colapinto still participated. But then he brought out the red flags when he hit the barriers during the Grand Prix.

Colapinto reflected on the sheer number of incidents this season and the spares Williams has had to use after his Vegas crash, saying, “There are always these things happening and they are around your head when there are not enough spares and the team is doing a very big effort to arrive with the parts for the two cars. Here, I’m not going to have the latest spec but it is what it is. We have to keep pushing forward, maximize what we have in the car and I’m sure the engineers, the team are pushing the limits.”

These incidents were part of 16 crashes in the 2024 F1 season, estimated to have cost the Williams over $10 million. So with such a heavy blot of disrepute on his resume, Colapinto just lost his chance to share the garage with Max Verstappen. Redbull boss Christian Horner sugarcoated the scenario, floating a vague future possibility for Colapinto. “He, for sure, is a talent that’s looking to earn his permanent place in Formula 1. We have a great pool of talent within the Red Bull junior team, and I’m sure Franco will find his way onto the grid in the future.”

Yet the Argentinian driver may have washed up against trouble inside his own team.

Damage too heavy to manage

Franco Colapinto drew heads during his 50G crash during Q2 in Las Vegas. That attention continued in Sao Paulo where he hit the barrier behind the Safety Car in tricky conditions. But what went on behind the scenes was harmful to Williams Racing. Colapinto left the team with a mammoth repair job before the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Colapinto’s Vegas crash also brought the team to 15 total incidents across the season, with six of those occurring in the last three races. As a result, Williams Racing has been forced to eat into its budget to recover from these crippling crashes.

Team boss James Vowles sadly admitted the reality ahead of the Qatar GP. “What we’re talking about is a few hundreds of thousands that I wish we weren’t spending this year that we could spend next year.” He continued, “There’s no doubt about it – I think teams aren’t built to take what are six major crashes. Generally speaking, we’ll hold a stock of parts that’s about four, maybe five of each component.” Then he stressed Colapinto’s jittery situation: “That’s about where you want to be, so it doesn’t take long to figure out that once you crash five or six of them, you’re in trouble.”

“It’s a distraction away from ‘25, there’s no doubt about it. Not so much from ‘26 but you have to pour your effort into just making sure you’re here on track fighting with your competitors around you.” Evidently, Franco Colapinto has darkened his prospects not only in Red Bull but in Williams as well. Let us wait and see what the future holds for him.