Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto said he hoped he had demonstrated he deserved to be in Formula 1 after scoring his first points for Williams at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday.
Brought in to replace dropped American Logan Sargeant, the 21-year-old finished eighth in only his second outing while teammate Alex Albon was seventh.
The points catapulted Williams ahead of Renault-owned Alpine to eighth in the standings.
Sargeant was let go after failing to score a point in 14 starts this season. The American scored only one point last year.
Colapinto also outqualified Albon for the race in Baku — starting eighth to the Thai’s ninth after adjustments to the grid — marking the first time Albon had been beaten by a teammate since 2022.
“They [Williams] showed so much confidence and trust in putting me in a seat,” Colapinto told reporters in Baku. “It was a very difficult bet, and a bet that many people didn’t understand.
“But I hope to be showing what I’m capable of and that I deserve a seat in Formula 1. The idea and the opportunity that [team boss] James [Vowles] gave me are helping me to show that.”
The Argentine has only seven more races in the car before he has to hand it over to incoming Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, whose signing for 2025 was announced in July.
Albon said normally Williams were fighting only for the last two scoring positions, with the top four teams generally taking the rest.
“So when a race like this happens, to get P7 and P8, it means a lot to us,” he added. “It’s a huge amount of points for a team that are rarely fighting for more than two points a race weekend.”