The journey to F1 for the 21-year-old Argentine F2 driver, Franco Colapinto.
Yesterday, Williams announced that they will be replacing Logan Sargeant with rookie F2 driver Franco Colapinto for the remainder of the season. As Colapinto has been quietly having a decent rookie F2 season, there are many questions over who the young Argentine is, and what he has done to earn an F1 seat so soon.
Spanning 12 years of teams and racing series, here is all that has led him to an F1 seat for the remainder of the 2024 F1 season.
Colapinto’s younger years
Franco Colapinto first arrived on the scene at just nine years old, going on to win the Argentinian Karting Championship in 2016 and 2018. His early success in karting included victory in the 2018 Youth Summer Olympics. He then entered the final round of the Spanish F4 season in 2018, claiming one victory that weekend.
Colapinto, quickly making a name for himself, was scouted by Fernando Alonso‘s FA Racing by Drivex team. They signed him for the 2019 Spanish F4 season, where he became champion in his rookie year. With 11 victories that year, he managed an almost 100-point lead in the standings.
Franco completed and finished third in the 2020 Toyota Racing Series (New Zealand). Afterwards, Colapinto returned to Europe to race in the Formula Renault Eurocup with MP Motorsport. He took two new victories and nine podium finishes to end the season as the highest-ranked rookie. In 2021, he built on this momentum, racing in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA). Here he won and finished on the podium twice.
Formula 3 and onwards
Before F3, Colapinto participated in both the Asian and European Le Mans Series, taking a victory, podium, and pole throughout the season. He won the FIA Endurance trophy and was teammates with former F1 driver and Formula E racer, Nyck de Vries.
In 2022, Colapinto moved to F3 with Van Amersfoort Racing, taking pole position in his first qualifying session, winning two races and five podiums that year. In January of 2023, Colapinto joined the Williams Racing Driver Academy and continued in F3.
In his second year, Franco Colapinto won two sprint races and finished fourth before moving up to Formula 2 in 2024 with MP Motorsport. The switch came after he participated in the 2023 finale in Abu Dhabi.
In F2, he had his first sprint win at Imola and had podium finishes at both Barcelona and Spielberg. The intention was for him to continue with MP Motorsport for the rest of the 2024 season.
Franco’s future in F1: “This is what dreams are made of”
Colapinto tested the FW45 in the off-season before making his FP1 debut driving the FW46 at the British Grand Prix. Now, Williams have made the decision to replace American driver Logan Sargeant with Franco. This change comes ahead of Monza, and the last nine races of the season.
Franco will be the first Argentine driver in Formula 1 for 23 years, the last one being Gaston Mazzacane in 2001. He is only the second Argentine to drive for Williams Racing.
The young driver has expressed how honoured he is to debut with Williams; “this is what dreams are made of”, he said. Franco also emphasized his motivation to help Williams back to competing among the top teams.
Team Principal James Vowles, meanwhile, claimed that replacing Sargeant mid-season is likely to yield the best results. His ultimate goal is “investing” in drivers from the academy. Vowles also says he is excited for Franco to have the opportunity to show us just what he’s capable of.
