Argentina returns to F1
Franco Colapinto he was the 25th Argentine driver in history to enter the cockpit of a Formula 1 car, the last being the forgettable Gaston Mazzacane in 2001. 21-year-old from Buenos Aires, Colapinto certainly did not have a predestined roadmap in the categories minors: he won the Spanish F4, in 2023 he finished 4th in the F3 and in 2024 with MP Motorsport in F2 he had collected 1 victory and 2 second places in ten world championship rounds. A good driver without dazzling peakswhich was lucky enough to have been included in the Academy last year Williamsa position that presented him with the F1 adventure with the British team on a silver platter, once Logan Sargeant was fired for poor results.
And it must be said that Colapinto (supported by Fernando Alonso’s FA at the time of Spanish F4) He’s making great use of the opportunitydespite knowing that his will be a ‘fixed-term’ job, given that Williams has already made the Albon-Sainz pair official for the next seasons. The Argentine – between Monza, Baku and Singapore – took home 4 points, reaching Q2 in Baku and proving overall quite close to the performances of Alex Albon, who has been with the team for three years now.
Colapinto-mania
Argentina has turned the spotlight on its F1 driver: Globant (hi-tech company) immediately poured its investments into Williams, just as other brands such as BigBox, Flybondi, GMC Group, Green Amor, Quilmes, Celulosa Argentina and Scalpers decided to become sponsors of the English team. Not indifferent economic attentionwhich immediately pricked up the ears of some teams present on the starting grid.
But not only that, because social media literally went crazy for Colapinto in September: it was mentioned 391 thousand times, far burying all the other colleagues (Leclerc had 184 thousand mentions, Sainz 83 thousand, Norris and Piastri 64 thousand, Hamilton 62 thousand and Verstappen 49 thousand). On Instagram he had a growth of more than 150% of his followers, which translated into mass requests for tickets for the next Brazilian GP, coming from Argentina.
Not only that: the secretary of Tourism, Environment and local Sport, Daniel Scioli, has already announced that he will be present in Sao Paulo to try to bring a race back to Argentinaafter having already been included in the calendar between 1953 and 1998. All with the approval of president Javier Milei (who however canceled the MotoGP event in recent months…). There is already talk of redeveloping the Buenos Aires Autodrome, which however is still far from being considered Category 1 by the FIA.
There are those who compare him to Max
Miguel Angel Guerraformer F1 driver with Osella in 1981 (4 appearances and only 1 qualification), during the course, then indulged in an absolutely risky comparison: “We have an impressive driver, he is the Argentine Verstappen. Any rational team principal should have already spoken to his manager. In three races he has made fewer errors than Sainz, Albon, Leclerc or Perez, who seem to be rookies compared to him. For this reason everyone talks about him and welcomed him so warmly.” As is natural, everyone in Argentina is giving Colapinto a hard time, also because he doesn’t have a team to race with for 2025.
It’s no mystery that the Audithe only team to still have a free seat for next season, is giving it some thought (even if Bottas and Bortoleto seem to be ahead). But not only that, because the recent declarations of Helmut Marko to Formel1.de they didn’t seem so disinterested: “He will definitely become someone in the future, he has proven to be very, very good both in Singapore and in Baku”and also Christian Horner to the podcast F1Nation he talked about “super work” of Colapinto in his races. And we know how fluid the Red Bull and Alpha Tauri driver lineups are.
And there is also gossip
Then there was no shortage of it crime newsimmediately highlighted by the Argentine press. Colapinto was in fact photographed in a restaurant in Madrid with the Argentine celebrities Cande Tinelli, Natalie Pérez, Morena López Blanco and Gaby Álvarez and also with the influencer Majo Martino, who immediately went to tell the newspapers the details of their meeting.
In short, in Argentina everyone talks about Colapinto: it is now up to the young Williams driver to manage all the attention and the pressure which will be on your shoulders. Undoubtedly the performances in these first three races were there, now it will be up to him to follow up in the remaining 6 weekends, also to guarantee his future with a view to 2025 or 2026. Without ruining everything, because the risk of a collective hallucination it is very large.
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