Last Updated on January 19 2025, 11:04 am

Franco Colapinto is genuinely the talk of Argentina. Girls who never watched F1 wear shirts with his name emblazoned across the back and the rising Formula One star has already bagged a host of wealthy Latin American backers to fund his racing ambitions.

The leap to fame for Franco was created when Williams boss James Vowles said ‘no more’ to the team’s recent tradition of employing North American drivers with financial support but little talent. Logan Sargeant was put out of his misery one race after the F1 summer break resumption as Colapinto stopped into the Williams car for the 2024 Italian Grand Prix.

Whilst in qualifying Franco was less than impressive as he dipped his wheel into the gravel at the second Lesmo turn ruing his chance of a decent time on his second push lap in Q1. Come Sunday things were set to change. Colapinto immediately showed his class when starting down in P18 when he defied the difficulty of tyre management often something which troubles rookie F1 starters.

 

 

 

Colapinto debut solid

Franco was tasked with pulling off a one stopper, which was a tough ask but his 37 lap stint on the hard tyre from the get go saw him gain track position over the Alpines and Lance Stroll. He then remained within ten seconds of Daniel Ricciardo who had been awarded a penalty from the stewards who ch moved him up to twelve at the chequered flag.

“I am happy of course with the result, but mostly happy with the pace,” Colapinto reported in the media pen. “It was a question mark. I have never done more than eight laps in a row before this and today I have done 53. The engineers stayed with me during all the sessions, helped me a lot with the tools to keep the tyres under control, and it was very positive.”

Next time out Colapinto was to hit the headlines again in Baku as he made it into final qualifying and beat his experienced team mate Alex Albon by over 3/10ths of a second to start the race in ninth. His four points for finishing eighth made him the first Argentinian driver to score a point since Carlos Reutemann at the 1982 South African Grand Prix.

As the F1 circus rolled into the city state of Singapore, Franco was again to impress qualifying just 7/1000ths of a second behind his team mate and completing the toughest of endurance races currently on the F1 calendar. Points again in the USA saw Franco the talk of the paddock and giving Christian Horner of Red Bull pause for thought.

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Doohan promotion premature?

“And it’s great to see the young guys turning up, jumping in the car and acquitting themselves really well, whether it’s Liam in the V-CARB car or Ollie Bearman or Colapinto doing a great job, it’s fantastic to see these young talents getting the chance and looking like veterans when they get in the car,” said the Red Bull boss who extolled the virtues of modern simulator preparation young drivers receive.

For a short while it seemed as though Horner was interested in signing the young Argentinian to replace Sergio Perez, yet two heavy shunts in Brazil, followed by another caused by driver error in Las Vegas saw Colapinto blot his copy book and add to the worries of Williams given their lack of spare parts.

As the season trundled to its conclusion in Abu Dhabi, it became clear there was no room at the inn for Franco with the current F11 team lineups complete and his wait for a full time F1 drive continues. Yet there was one individual in the paddock whose interest did not wain as the maverick Flavio Briatore stepped in to sign the Argentinian to his Alpine roster.

With Esteban Ocon departing for Haas F1, Alpine had taken the decision to promote their academy driver Jack Doohan to replace the Frenchman come 2025. Yet this announcement was made before Colapinto arrived on the scene. Briatore who rescued the failing Renault team and saw them to two constructor titles was keen to secure the services of Colapinto for Alpine as their reserve driver for the coming season.

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Alpine pay half the fee Red Bull quoted

The fee paid was a reported $10m, just half of the amount banded around when Red Bull were sniffing around the Williams hospitality home. Now the rising F1 star is waiting in the wings as Jack Doohan will take to the grid for his season opening home race in Melbourne.

Alpine took the unusual decision to suspend Esteban Ocon for the final race of last year to allow Doohan the Abu Dhabi weekend to familiarise himself with all things F1 ahead of his full debut down under. An underwhelming performance in qualifying saw the Aussie fail to make it out of Q1 and start the Grand Prix plumb last. 

Whilst the history books record Doohan as having finished in P15, besides the non finishers he was ahead of just Kevin Magnussen whose race had been compromised by Valtteri Bottas who spun the Haas driver around causing front wing damage.

Reflecting on the Aussie’s debut, Red Bull’s Dr. Helmut Marko told F1-insider “there should have been more.” And given the relatively forgiving nature of the Yas Marina Circuit with its huge car park style run off areas, Doohan should have pushed the limits more in an effort to show his true capabilities.

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Briatore refuses to guarantee Doohan’s future

Ex-F1 driver Joylona Palmer told the chequered flag podcast: “He didn’t do a lot, did he? But he didn’t do a lot wrong either. It’s fine, it’s difficult to parachute someone in for a final race.” Being damned with such faint praise does not bode well for Doohan who has widely been reported to have just a 5 or 6 guaranteed race contract for this year.

Briatore also cut the Aussie no slack at the announcement last week of Colapinto’s arrival at Alpine. When asked if Doohan was guaranteed to see the season out behind the wheel, the flamboyant Italian remarked to Le Parisien, “The only thing we can be sure of is death! We’ll start the year with Pierre and Jack, I can guarantee that. After that, we’ll see as the season progresses. If there’s a driver who isn’t making progress, who isn’t bringing me results, I change him. You can’t be emotional in F1.”

Whilst Doohan has a host of sponsors behind his F1 adventure, when compared to the Latin American backing for Colapinto, the numbers are overwhelming. Despite paying out potential breach of contract monies to Doohan, Colapinto behind the wheel of an Alpine makes far better financial sense.

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Ferrari chief brown noses Hamilton ahead of first track session

The world of Formula One fell silent in Abu Dhabi during the second week of December 2024 and the intervening holiday period has offered little in the way of news for the fans. Audi have again completed the 100% takeover of Sauber whilst Valtteri Bottas raised questions of the Swiss based team’s chassis building skills.

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