Franco Alejandro Colapinto (Spanish pronunciation: ; born 27 May 2003) is an Argentine racing driver, currently competing in Formula One for Williams.

Born and raised in Pilar, Colapinto began competitive kart racing aged nine, winning several regional and national championships. Graduating to junior formulae in 2018, Colapinto won his first title at the 2019 F4 Spanish Championship with Drivex. He then finished third in the Formula Renault Eurocup and the Toyota Racing Series in 2020. Colapinto moved into endurance racing in 2021, competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series for G-Drive. Colapinto progressed to FIA Formula 3 in 2022, finishing fourth the following season with MP and graduating to Formula 2.

A member of the Williams Driver Academy since 2023, Colapinto made his Formula One debut with Williams at the 2024 Italian Grand Prix, replacing Logan Sargeant for the remainder of the 2024 season as an interim for the incoming Carlos Sainz Jr. With his debut, he became the first Argentine driver to compete in Formula One since Gastón Mazzacane in 2001. Colapinto scored his maiden points finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Colapinto started karting at the age of nine. He won the Argentine Championship in 2016 (Pre-Junior class) and 2018 (Sudam class), as well as the Buenos Aires Regional Championship in 2016 (Pre-Junior class) and 2017 (Junior class). Colapinto won the gold medal at the 2018 Youth Summer Olympics in partnership with María García Puig.

Colapinto made his car racing debut in 2018, participating in the final round of the F4 Spanish Championship, driving for Drivex School. In 2019 Colapinto signed with FA Racing by Drivex for a full campaign in the F4 Spanish Championship. His father had to sell his house to fund the season.He took the title by winning all three races in the season finale bringing his debut car racing season tally to eleven victories, 13 podiums and 14 pole positions.

During the 2019 season, Colapinto drove for Drivex as a guest driver in the 2019 round at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

Drivex also ran Colapinto during the 2019 season at Spa and Catalunya. In July 2020, Colapinto joined the championship full-time with Dutch outfit MP Motorsport.

In January 2020, Colapinto joined Kiwi Motorsport for the 2020 championship. The season saw him claim a race win in Hampton Downs and further 7 podiums and end the championship third overall, clinching the rookie championship win.

For 2021, Colapinto took part in the European and Asian Le Mans Series driving an Aurus 01 for G-Drive Racing. In Asia the season saw him claim 3 podiums in 4 races and end the championship third overall with his co-drivers Rui Andrade and John Falb; in Europe he partnered with Nyck de Vries and Roman Rusinov and finished fourth overall.

In October 2020, Colapinto joined MP Motorsport for the first day of post-season testing at Catalunya. He did likewise the following year at Valencia, but ended up signing for Van Amersfoort Racing instead for the 2022 season, partnering Rafael Villagómez and Reece Ushijima. Colapinto started his F3 career with a pole position on his and his team's debut in the series at Sakhir. He went on to win the Sprint Race at the following round in Imola, scoring his and VAR's maiden victory in the series. Throughout the season Colapinto took three more podium finishes at the Spielberg, Budapest and Zandvoort rounds and a second Sprint Race win at the final round in Monza to finish ninth in the drivers' standings.

In September, Colapinto partook in the 2022 post-season test, again with MP Motorsport. On January 9, 2023, he was announced as MP Motorsport's driver for the 2023 season.

At the season-opening Sakhir round, Colapinto qualified 12th and consequently claimed pole position for the Sprint Race, where he crossed the line in second place behind Pepe Martí. He finished 10th in the Feature Race on Sunday, scoring one more point.

Colapinto went on to qualify 7th in Melbourne. He started the Sprint Race in sixth place and climbed up the order to claim his first victory of the season. However, after post-race inspections found all three MP Motorsport cars to have infringed technical regulations, he was disqualified from the Sprint Race along with his teammates Jonny Edgar and Mari Boya. He then crashed out of the Feature Race, departing Australia without points.

Since then, Colapinto went on to consistently score points on every round of the calendar, aside from the Spielberg Sprint Race where he finished 13th and the season-ending Monza Feature Race in which he retired with a suspension failure after contact in the first lap. He ended the season fourth in the Drivers' Championship, with two wins at the Silverstone and Monza Sprint Races and three podium finishes at Sakhir, Catalunya and Budapest.

Colapinto was set to race in the 2023 Macau Grand Prix with MP Motorsport. However, he withdrew from the event last-minute due to a broken collarbone he sustained prior to the final F3 round, and was replaced by Dennis Hauger.

In October 2023, MP Motorsport announced that they would promote Colapinto to their Formula 2 outfit for the final race in Yas Marina and the full 2024 season, replacing Jehan Daruvala. Ahead of his F2 debut, Colapinto expressed that "it's going to be tough" yet he was "super excited". He finished 19th in the sprint race, but retired from the feature race due to a sensor issue.

Colapinto remained with MP Motorsport for the 2024 season, driving alongside 2021 FIA Formula 3 champion Dennis Hauger. At the Imola round, Colapinto claimed his first F2 victory in the Sprint Race, additionally setting the fastest lap. With four rounds remaining, Colapinto ended his campaign after a promotion to Formula One.

In January 2023, Colapinto joined the Williams Driver Academy.

Colapinto made his debut in a Formula One car with the Williams FW45, during the 2023 post-season test at Yas Marina Circuit. He set the 22nd fastest time overall, completing 65 laps. This made him the first Argentine to drive an F1 car since Gastón Mazzacane competed in the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix. Colapinto made his Formula One free practice debut at the 2024 British Grand Prix, driving for Williams in the first session in place of Logan Sargeant. Ahead of his free practice debut, Colapinto stated that it was a "historic moment" representing Argentina.

In the middle of the 2024 Formula One season, Colapinto replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams, debuting at the 2024 Italian Grand Prix. He is scheduled to complete the final nine races of the season. Colapinto is the first Formula One driver from Argentina since Gastón Mazzacane, who last raced in 2001.

At Monza, Colapinto qualified in eighteenth but recovered to twelfth. The following race at Baku, Colapinto qualified ninth and finished eighth, making him the first Argentine to score points in Formula One since Carlos Reutemann at the 1982 South African Grand Prix (although Mazzacane would have scored at the 2000 Italian Grand Prix under the modern-day scoring system). At Singapore, he finished eleventh and received praise from Sergio Pérez for his sturdy defense.

At Austin, he finished tenth and nearly recorded his first career fastest lap, but Alpine was competing with Williams for eighth in the Constructors' Championship standings and wiped out the fastest lap by sending out Esteban Ocon for a flying lap at the end of the race. Under an F1 rule set to be scrapped at season's-end, Ocon could not collect the fastest lap point (since he did not finish in tenth or above) but could prevent Colapinto from getting it. Ocon personally apologised to Colapinto on Twitter after the race.

In Mexico, he qualified in sixteenth but recovered to twelfth in the race. He had a great performance despite the problems he declared that the car had in qualifying. After the race, the FIA ​​announced a penalty for a collision with Liam Lawson, which applied a 10-second penalty in the race (which did not affect his position) and 2 penalty points on his professional driver's license for 12 months.

Colapinto is of Italian descent through his father and Ukrainian descent through his mother Andrea Trofimczuk. He is a dual citizen of Argentina and Italy. He moved to Italy by himself when he was 14 years old to pursue a career in motorsports.

Colapinto's favourite drivers are Lewis Hamilton and Ayrton Senna, and his favourite track is Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. He supports the Boca Juniors football team.

Season Series Team Position 2013 Rotax Max Buenos Aires — Micro Max NC 2014 Argentine Championship — Promocional 6th 2015 Argentine Championship — Pre-Junior Acosta Kart Division 2nd 2016 Argentine Championship — Sudam Junior 10th Argentine Championship — Pre-Junior 1st Buenos Aires Regional Championship — Pre-Junior 1st SKUSA SuperNationals — X30 Junior 12th ROK Cup International Final — Junior ROK Baby Race Srl 9th CIK-FIA European Championship — OKJ Baby Race Srl NC† 2017 Buenos Aires Regional Championship — Junior 1st South Garda Winter Cup — OKJ 2nd SKUSA SuperNationals — X30 Junior CRG Nordam 23rd CIK-FIA World Championship — OKJ Baby Race Srl 35th 2018 Argentine Championship — Sudam Acosta Racing Team 1st WSK Champions Cup — OK CRG Spa 22nd South Garda Winter Cup — OK 17th Trofeo Andrea Margutti — OK 24th WSK Super Master Series — OK 46th CIK-FIA European Championship — OK 69th WSK Open Cup — OK 32nd CIK-FIA World Championship — OK 45th Karting at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics 1st

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Team Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 DC Points 2016 Baby Race Srl OKJ ZUE
QH
65 ZUE
PF
24 ZUE
R
DNQ ADR
QH
ADR
PF
ADR
R
PRT
QH
PRT
PF
PRT
R
GEN
QH
GEN
PF
GEN
R
NC 0 2018 CRG Spa OK SAR
QH
70 SAR
R
DNQ PFI
QH
51 PFI
R
DNQ AMP
QH
AMP
R
ALB
QH
ALB
R
69th 0 Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F/Laps Podiums Points Position 2018 F4 Spanish Championship Drivex School 4 1 2 0 2 49 9th 2019 F4 Spanish Championship Drivex School 21 11 10 10 13 325 1st Euroformula Open Championship 2 0 0 0 0 0 27th Formula Renault Eurocup FA Racing by Drivex 4 0 0 0 0 0 NC† 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup MP Motorsport 20 2 0 2 9 213.5 3rd Toyota Racing Series Kiwi Motorsport 15 1 1 2 8 315 3rd 2021 Formula Regional European Championship MP Motorsport 16 2 3 4 4 140 6th Asian Le Mans Series G-Drive Racing 4 0 3 3 3 66 3rd European Le Mans Series 6 1 1 1 2 74 4th FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2 2 0 0 0 0 0 NC† 24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 7th GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup - Silver ROFGO Racing with Team WRT 1 0 0 0 0 11 27th Intercontinental GT Challenge Team WRT 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship Van Amersfoort Racing 18 2 1 0 5 76 9th 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship MP Motorsport 18 2 0 0 5 110 4th FIA Formula 2 Championship 2 0 0 0 0 0 25th 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship MP Motorsport 20 1 0 3 3 96* 7th* Formula One Williams Racing 6 0 0 0 0 5* 19th*

† As Colapinto was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points. * Season still in progress.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 DC Points 2018 Drivex School ARA
1 ARA
2 ARA
3 CRT
1 CRT
2 CRT
3 ALG
1 ALG
2 ALG
3 CAT
1 CAT
2 JER
1 JER
2 JER
3 NAV
1
5 NAV
2
5 NAV
3
2 NAV
4
1 9th 49 2019 Drivex School NAV
1
1 NAV
2
3 NAV
3
6 LEC
1
4 LEC
2
7 LEC
3
4 ARA
1
1 ARA
2
14 ARA
3
11 CRT
1
1 CRT
2
1 CRT
3
1 JER
1
4 JER
2
3 JER
3
1 ALG
1
1 ALG
2
1 ALG
3
4 CAT
1
1 CAT
2
1 CAT
3
1 1st 325

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 DC Points 2019 FA Racing by Drivex MNZ
1 MNZ
2 SIL
1 SIL
2 MON
1 MON
2 LEC
1 LEC
2 SPA
1
12 SPA
2
20 NÜR
1 NÜR
2 HUN
1 HUN
2 CAT
1
11 CAT
2
10 HOC
1 HOC
2 YMC
1 YMC
2 NC† 0 2020 MP Motorsport MNZ
1
1 MNZ
2
3 IMO
1
6 IMO
2
7 NÜR
1
7 NÜR
2
6 MAG
1
13 MAG
2
Ret ZAN
1
6 ZAN
2
3 CAT
1
6 CAT
2
3 SPA
1
1‡ SPA
2
12 IMO
1
4 IMO
2
2 HOC
1
4 HOC
2
3 LEC
1
3 LEC
2
3 3rd 213.5

† As Colapinto was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points. ‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 DC Points 2020 Kiwi Motorsport HIG
1
9 HIG
2
6 HIG
3
2 TER
1
4 TER
2
5 TER
3
8 HMP
1
5 HMP
2
1 HMP
3
8 PUK
1
3 PUK
2
3 PUK
3
2 MAN
1
3 MAN
2
2 MAN
3
2 3rd 315

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Team Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 Pos. Points 2021 G-Drive Racing LMP2 Aurus 01 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 DUB
1
4 DUB
2
2 ABU
1
3 ABU
2
2 3rd 66

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 DC Points 2021 MP Motorsport IMO
1
WD IMO
2
WD CAT
1
28† CAT
2
Ret MCO
1
WD MCO
2
WD LEC
1
12 LEC
2
12 ZAN
1
5 ZAN
2
2 SPA
1
Ret SPA
2
6 RBR
1
1 RBR
2
4 VAL
1
1 VAL
2
2 MUG
1
Ret MUG
2
5 MNZ
1
7 MNZ
2
6 6th 140

† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rank Points 2021 G-Drive Racing LMP2 Aurus 01 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 CAT
4 RBR
2 LEC
1 MNZ
8 SPA
NC ALG
5 4th 74 Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos. 2021 G-Drive Racing Roman Rusinov
Nyck de Vries Aurus 01-Gibson LMP2 358 12th 7th

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 DC Points 2022 Van Amersfoort Racing BHR
SPR
25 BHR
FEA
5 IMO
SPR
1 IMO
FEA
22 CAT
SPR
Ret CAT
FEA
8 SIL
SPR
13 SIL
FEA
Ret RBR
SPR
3 RBR
FEA
6 HUN
SPR
2 HUN
FEA
15 SPA
SPR
15 SPA
FEA
12 ZAN
SPR
13 ZAN
FEA
3 MNZ
SPR
1 MNZ
FEA
15 9th 76 2023 MP Motorsport BHR
SPR
2 BHR
FEA
10 MEL
SPR
DSQ MEL
FEA
Ret MON
SPR
4 MON
FEA
6 CAT
SPR
6 CAT
FEA
2 RBR
SPR
13 RBR
FEA
4 SIL
SPR
1 SIL
FEA
8 HUN
SPR
7 HUN
FEA
3 SPA
SPR
5 SPA
FEA
10 MNZ
SPR
1 MNZ
FEA
Ret 4th 110

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 DC Points 2023 MP Motorsport BHR
SPR BHR
FEA JED
SPR JED
FEA MEL
SPR MEL
FEA BAK
SPR BAK
FEA MCO
SPR MCO
FEA CAT
SPR CAT
FEA RBR
SPR RBR
FEA SIL
SPR SIL
FEA HUN
SPR HUN
FEA SPA
SPR SPA
FEA ZAN
SPR ZAN
FEA MNZ
SPR MNZ
FEA YMC
SPR
19 YMC
FEA
Ret 25th 0 2024 MP Motorsport BHR
SPR
18 BHR
FEA
6 JED
SPR
11 JED
FEA
Ret MEL
SPR
4 MEL
FEA
DSQ IMO
SPR
1 IMO
FEA
5 MON
SPR
5 MON
FEA
13 CAT
SPR
18 CAT
FEA
2 RBR
SPR
11 RBR
FEA
2 SIL
SPR
5 SIL
FEA
4 HUN
SPR
5 HUN
FEA
13 SPA
SPR
8 SPA
FEA
Ret MNZ
SPR
MNZ
FEA
BAK
SPR
BAK
FEA
LSL
SPR
LSL
FEA
YMC
SPR
YMC
FEA
7th* 96*

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 WDC Points 2024 Williams Racing Williams FW46 Mercedes-AMG F1 M15 V6 t BHR SAU AUS JPN CHN MIA EMI MON CAN ESP AUT GBR
TD HUN BEL NED ITA
12 AZE
8 SIN
11 USA
10 MXC
12 SAP
Ret LVG
QAT
ABU
19th* 5*

* Season still in progress.

Official website

Franco Colapinto career summary at DriverDB.com