Franco Colapinto

Franco Colapinto, born on 27 May 2003 in Buenos Aires, began karting at nine and won the Argentine championship in 2016 and 2018. At the 2018 Youth Summer Olympics in his home city, he won the electric karting demonstration event alongside María García Puig for Argentina.

That same year he moved to Europe to pursue single-seater racing and dominated the Spanish Formula 4 championship in 2019. For financial reasons he switched temporarily to endurance racing in 2021, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, before confirming his return to single-seaters in 2022 with a pole position on his very first Formula 3 qualifying appearance. In 2023 he joined the Williams junior programme.

At the end of August 2024, with less than eight consecutive laps of Formula 1 experience, he was placed in the Williams car as a replacement for the struggling Logan Sargeant. At the Italian Grand Prix in Monza he became the first Argentine Formula 1 driver in 23 years, and just two races later took the first championship points for an Argentine since Carlos Reutemann in 1982 with eighth place in Azerbaijan.

Following setbacks at the end of the 2024 season, he became Alpine’s reserve driver in 2025 before replacing then race driver Jack Doohan after just five rounds. He was confirmed for 2026 alongside Pierre Gasly.