Franco Colapinto: From Pilar Karting to Formula One with Williams and Alpine

Franco Colapinto is an Argentine driver who won the 2019 F4 Spanish Championship and moved through Formula Renault, Formula 3 and Formula 2 before his Formula One debut with Williams in 2024. He scored points for Argentina for the first time in decades in 2024, and he has raced for Alpine since 2025. His best Formula One result so far is sixth at the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix.

Who is Franco Colapinto?

Franco Alejandro Colapinto was born on 27 May 2003, and he grew up in Pilar, Buenos Aires. He began competitive kart racing at the age of nine, winning regional and national championships before moving to Italy alone at fourteen to pursue his career.

Colapinto's rise has been built on a series of title-winning seasons in junior formulae, followed by a steady progression through the Formula 3 and Formula 2 ranks. His Formula One career has been defined by a mix of points finishes and tough races, and by his place as the first Argentine to race in the sport in years.

Pilar karting, an F4 title, Formula 2 wins and a Williams debut that became a paddock-level story of persistence in Argentina.

How did Colapinto start in karting?

Colapinto won the Argentine Championship in 2016 in the Pre-Junior class and again in 2018 in the Sudam class. He also took the Buenos Aires Regional Championship in 2016 and 2017, in the Pre-Junior and Junior classes respectively.

At the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics he won the karting exhibition race, alongside Maria Garcia Puig. Those results marked him as a serious prospect before he began car racing.

How did Colapinto's car racing begin in Spain?

Colapinto made his car racing debut in 2018, in the final round of the F4 Spanish Championship with Drivex School. He finished second in race three and won the final race of the round.

In 2019 he signed with FA Racing by Drivex for a full F4 Spanish campaign. He started the season with two wins in the first three rounds, followed by a hat-trick of wins at Valencia and at the Barcelona finale.

His title came with ten poles, eleven wins and thirteen podiums, and he finished nearly 100 points ahead of his nearest rival. The same year he raced as a guest in Euroformula Open at Spa, finishing 15th and 14th, and he also made outings for Drivex in the Formula Renault Eurocup at Spa and Catalunya.

How did Colapinto perform in the Formula Renault Eurocup?

From July 2020 he raced the Eurocup full time for MP Motorsport, and won at Monza first time out and finished third in the second race, and he won again at Spa-Francorchamps later in the season.

The season was dominated by Victor Martins and Caio Collet. Colapinto returned to the podium at the fifth round in Zandvoort, and with four more podiums he finished the year with nine in total. He placed third in the championship with 213.5 points.

What did Colapinto do in the Toyota Racing Series?

In January 2020 he joined Kiwi Motorsport for the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand. He won a race at Hampton Downs, his only victory of that campaign, and finished on the podium in the remaining two rounds to take third in the standings.

How did Colapinto's 2021 season split between single-seaters and sportscars?

In 2021 he entered the first Formula Regional European season with MP Motorsport, but skipped the Imola opener because of sportscar commitments, and he had a poor weekend at Barcelona. At Monaco his lap times were deleted in qualifying for a technical infringement, and he withdrew from the weekend.

He took his first podium with second at Zandvoort and then won a double at the Red Bull Ring, although the second win was later stripped for track limits. He rebounded at Valencia by winning the first race and finishing second in the other. He finished sixth in the standings despite missing two rounds, and he put his early-season trouble down to a lack of pace.

Alongside single-seaters he raced sportscars for G-Drive Racing. In the Asian Le Mans Series he took three podiums and finished third in the LMP2 standings. In the European Le Mans Series he partnered Nyck de Vries and Roman Rusinov, taking his first endurance victory at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet and his first podium at the Red Bull Ring.

What were Colapinto's first 24 Hours of Le Mans and Spa results?

He took his first pole position in the European Le Mans Series at Monza, but a strategic error dropped the team down the order and he recovered to finish eighth. The series ended with him fourth overall.

At his maiden 24 Hours of Le Mans he came through to seventh in the LMP2 category. He also stood in for Stuart Hall at the 24 Hours of Spa with Team WRT, and the team finished 14th. In 2021 he received his FIA Silver categorisation, which was upgraded to Gold in 2022 and Platinum in 2025.

How did Colapinto's Formula 3 rookie season go in 2022?

In 2022 he joined Van Amersfoort Racing, partnering Rafael Villagomez and Reece Ushijima. He started with a pole position in Sakhir on his and the team's debut in the series, but he was passed for the lead and then given a time penalty for track limits.

At Imola he lost the lead early in the sprint race to Caio Collet, but he re-passed him on the final lap for the first victory for himself and the team. The feature race was a poor one, after a wrong tyre choice on a damp track left him 22nd.

He was eliminated from a collision on the opening lap at Silverstone, but he returned to the podium at Spielberg with third in the sprint race. In Budapest he was second in the sprint, and at Zandvoort he took his first feature race podium with third.

His second win came at Monza, where he qualified on reverse pole, led from start to finish and defended hard against Oliver Bearman on the final lap. He ended his rookie F3 season ninth in the drivers' standings with 76 points.

How did Colapinto's Formula 3 season with MP Motorsport go in 2023?

He was announced as MP Motorsport's driver on 9 January 2023, partnering Jonny Edgar and Mari Boya. At Sakhir he qualified on reverse pole and finished second in the sprint, and at Melbourne he took a first win before being disqualified.

He had a strong Monaco weekend with fourth in the sprint and sixth in the feature. At Barcelona he finished second in the feature race, and at Silverstone he took a sprint victory after Montoya and Barnard collided ahead of him. He dedicated that win to Dilano van 't Hoff, who had been killed in a crash in FRECA.

He won the Monza season finale sprint after a fierce battle with his teammate Mari Boya, which gave him his second win of the campaign. He ended fourth in the standings, with 110 points, two wins and five podiums. He had been due to race at the 2023 Macau Grand Prix, but a broken collarbone from before the final round forced him to withdraw, and Dennis Hauger took his place.

What did Colapinto achieve in Formula 2 in 2023 and 2024?

In October 2023 MP Motorsport promoted him to its Formula 2 team for the final race at Yas Marina and the full 2024 season, replacing Jehan Daruvala. He finished 19th in his first sprint but retired from the feature race with a sensor problem.

In 2024 he was partnered by 2021 Formula 3 champion Dennis Hauger. He scored his first points with sixth in the Bahrain feature race, and at Imola he made a late pass on Paul Aron for the lead to take his first Formula 2 victory. At Barcelona he was second in the feature race, and at the Austrian round he was second after an alternate strategy in the feature.

He ended 2024 sixth overall on 96 points, thirteen clear of Hauger. When he was promoted to Formula One, MP replaced him with Oliver Goethe.

How did Colapinto's Williams journey begin?

The Williams Driver Academy took him on in 2023. His first Formula One test followed at Yas Marina that year, in the Williams FW45, where he set the 22nd fastest time over 65 laps.

He made his free practice debut at the 2024 British Grand Prix, taking the first session in place of Logan Sargeant. He called it a historic moment for Argentina.

What were Colapinto's first Formula One results with Williams?

Midway through 2024, Williams announced that he would replace Logan Sargeant for the remaining nine rounds, alongside Alexander Albon. He debuted at the Italian Grand Prix, qualifying 18th and finishing 12th.

At Azerbaijan he qualified ninth and finished eighth, making him the first Argentine to earn points since Carlos Reutemann's 1982 South African result. Singapore brought eleventh, and Sergio Perez praised his defensive driving.

He finished tenth at the United States Grand Prix, scoring another point. In Mexico he qualified 16th and recovered to 12th, but the FIA gave him a 10-second time penalty for a collision with Liam Lawson, which did not affect his position, and two penalty points on his Super Licence for 12 months.

At Sao Paulo, Colapinto finished 12th in the sprint after starting 14th. His Grand Prix was ruined by a crash on lap 31 under safety car conditions, which caused a red flag. In Las Vegas he hit the barrier hard in qualifying, forcing him to start from the pitlane, and he finished 14th.

At Qatar he finished 18th in the sprint and retired from the main race after a lap one collision with Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon. At Abu Dhabi he started last after a gearbox penalty, suffered a puncture from a collision with Oscar Piastri and retired on lap 26 with a cooling problem.

He finished the season 19th in the standings with five points from nine Grands Prix, three behind teammate Albon.

How did Colapinto's Alpine seat come about?

In 2025 Alpine brought him in as a test and reserve driver on a multi-year contract. Team supervisor Flavio Briatore guaranteed that Jack Doohan would start the season, adding that the team would see after that.

After the Miami Grand Prix, Doohan was demoted to reserve driver and Colapinto took his seat on a rotating basis. He debuted at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, starting after a one-place penalty and finishing sixteenth.

At Monaco he qualified last and finished 13th. At Spain he qualified 19th and finished 15th. In Canada he qualified 12th, ahead of his teammate Pierre Gasly for the first time, and finished 13th. Before the Austrian Grand Prix it was confirmed that he would keep the seat on a race-by-race basis. His best finish in 2025 was eleventh at the Dutch Grand Prix.

How has Colapinto's 2026 season gone so far?

He is continuing alongside Gasly at Alpine in 2026. At the Australian Grand Prix he made a split-second evasive move at the start, swerving around a stalled Liam Lawson and squeezing through to the pit wall, which George Russell described on social media as the save of the season. He then received a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for a start infringement and finished 14th.

At the Chinese Grand Prix he qualified 12th and finished tenth, his first point since his earlier stint with Williams, and he ran as high as second during the race. At the Canadian Grand Prix he finished sixth, his best result in Formula One so far.

He scored again with tenth at Barcelona, ninth at Silverstone and tenth in Belgium. After a 15th in Hungary and a 14th in the Netherlands, he finished ninth at the Italian Grand Prix to score again.

In August 2026 Alpine confirmed that he would remain alongside Gasly in 2027.