Franco Colapinto, born 27 May 2003 in Pilar, Argentina, became the F1 grid’s newest addition in 2024, as he replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams ahead of the Italian GP. In doing so, he became the first Argentine driver to take part in a world championship race since Gaston Mazzancane in 2001 and duly impressed with a 12th place finish at Monza.
He had previously never done more than eight consecutive laps behind the wheel of an F1 car and had had less than a week to prepare for his grand prix debut.
Colapinto’s rise through the racing ranks hasn’t been meteoric, but his resume of results speaks for itself. Two national karting titles in Argentina in 2016 and 2018 were quickly followed by title-success in Spanish Formula 4 in 2019 — a feat which set him on a path toward impressive campaigns in Formula Renault (2020), the Castrol Toyota Racing Series (2020), and in sportscars in the Asian and European Le Mans Series (2021).
A return to single-seaters in 2022 put Colapinto’s F1 ambitions back on track, as he picked up pole positions and race wins in Formula 3 before being signed to the Williams Racing Driver Academy Programme in 2023. Under the watchful eye of the Grove outfit, Colapinto has gone from strength to strength, first finishing fourth in the 2023 F3 standings before earning a move to F2 with MP Motorsport in 2024 where his ability has continued to grow in the form of race wins and podium finishes.
While he’ll spend the remainder of 2024 behind the wheel of Williams’ FW46 F1 car, little is known about what the future holds for F1’s most exiting Argentine prospect.
