Colapinto: Children in Argentina want to be like me

In the summer, Franco Colapinto competed in Formula 2, sometimes reaching the podium and winning the Saturday sprint in Imola, but soon his life changed dramatically, as after becoming a Williams driver he started earning points almost immediately . The 21-year-old Argentinian makes such a quality impression that other teams have already noticed him.

Moreover, there are no vacancies before 2025, not only at Williams, where Carlos Sainz will become Alex Albon’s new teammate, there are also no vacancies at other teams, but Alpine is actively interested in Colapinto, and apparently also in Red Bull.

He didn’t spend last weekend in Brazil in the best way and crashed his car twice – both during qualifying and on Sunday during the rainy race. But for example, during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Franco also had an accident in the first practice, which did not stop him from achieving an 8th result in qualifying and finishing 8th in the race. This obviously speaks of his psychological resilience, a very important quality, without which it is hardly possible to achieve success in motorsport.

“I have been preparing for this all my life,” Franco said in an interview with the championship’s official website. “You never know when your opportunity will come, so you have to grab it with both hands.” This is my time, opportunities are opening up for me – so let’s do our best.

Every time I get behind the wheel of a car, I get real pleasure and I try to use every second of this time with full efficiency. I also have difficult moments, but that is normal, because this is also part of the process. There are still more good moments than bad, but at the same time it is satisfying that we overcome difficulties together with the team.

Now everything is new to me, everything is very different from what I am used to. But I always trust the people around me, and when you feel their support, feel their strength, you become stronger yourself. I don’t know when I’ll get my next chance, so I need to get as much fun and benefit as possible now…

I’m still learning how to interact with the team because there are a lot of people around me through whom I receive information. But I think one of the strengths of our team is that everyone has a great working relationship, and I feel that. Together we are making progress and I think we are making progress quickly.”

Interest in Franco Colapinto in his homeland Argentina has grown significantly: if in the summer he had about 200 thousand subscribers on social networks, now there are almost four million, and his portraits do not leave the sports pages of the country’s largest newspapers.

“They love me in Argentina, the fans treat all the people around me very warmly,” confirmed Franco, who became the first representative of this Latin American country in Formula 1 in 23 years. “My racing engineer has already become a celebrity there. and one of the streets has already been named after James Vowles! There’s a lot of things happening there right now.

Argentina really needs its own driver in Formula 1. When I was a child watching the races on TV on Sundays, I also wanted to plead for a representative of my country, but there were none. But now my dream has come true and the boys have someone to root for. Motorsport is gaining popularity in Argentina, many children already say they want to be like me and ask their parents to take them to the races…

I hope I can stay in Formula 1 and we are working on that now. It’s really nice to see how happy everyone is when I show good results. But for now I try not to think about the future, about what awaits me next year. I just trust the people around me.

It is also very important for them what I will do next year, but now it is my manager’s job to try to find the most attractive contract for me. But I still have no idea what’s going on in this area. The most important thing is that it doesn’t distract me from my work, because I just try to do my best so that I’m ready for new races and new challenges.

Even if I don’t race in Formula 1 next year, I hope to make a good impression and prove that I deserve a place in this championship in the future. This is my goal and this is what I want to prove in every race.”