Fernando Romero Nuñez Argentine race driver Franco Colapinto will take the track for the third time as an Alpine driver on Friday. He will look to improve on his previous outings, a mixed Imola performance and a solid race at Monaco. Luckily for him, this time around he’ll race at a familiar track where he’s tasted plenty of victories and podiums: the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
“It’s one of the tracks I’ve lapped the most at and one of my favorites,” said the Argentine racer in a simulator preview he did for Alpine.
Often known by the area it’s located in, Montmeló, the track has been a staple of the F1 calendar for a long time and the site of historic battles between greats such as Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Michael Schumacher.
Success leading up to his F1 career
This is the first time Colapinto will compete as an F1 driver in one of the tracks he’s had the most success at. The 2024 Spain Grand Prix had long passed by the time Williams Racing called the Argentine race up to replace U.S.’s Logan Sargeant.
One of Colapinto’s finest hours as a racing driver came racing in F2 for MP Motorsport in Barcelona last year. After struggling to replicate his winning form at Imola that same year, he took to the podium for the second time in the season with a very special guest in the stands: Argentine producer and DJ Bizarrap.
“It is the first time I have come to Barcelona and it is the first time I have seen ‘Franquito’ live,” said the producer at the time, adding their relationship started when his father told him about the drivers’ bout to find sponsors. “We didn’t know each other, but I asked him how I could help him. I called Martín [Migoya] from Globant and YPF, who listened to me and gave me a chance to support him.”
Colapinto, for his part, called Bizarrap a “great guy, beyond being the best at what he does.” “He’s helped me enormously and accompanied me this year. He really did something very important for me to be able to race in Formula 2.”
He was sixth in the F2 championship when Williams called him up to have his debut in F1.
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Colapinto’s early success in Barcelona
Colapinto’s first time driving around the Barcelona circuit came in 2019, when he was just 16 in the Spanish Formula 4 Championship. He won all three of the races at the Monmeló track driving for the Drivex School team. The results helped him secure the drivers’ title at the series that year.
One of the most respected and competitive F4 series in Europe, the championship allows prospective drivers the chance to measure their skills at past and present F1 tracks. Among them are Barcelona and Jerez in Spain, Portimão in Portugal, and Paul Ricard in France.
His next stop was the Formula Renault Eurocup series, an intermediate series for prospective drivers eyeing a move into the Formula 1 ladder. Colapinto would once again drive at Barcelona but struggled to make it into the top ten with Drivex in 2019. He improved on his performances the following year, securing sixth and third places while racing with MP Motorsport.
This team took Colapinto to the F3-level series Formula Regional European Championship in 2021. He’d go on to pick up two wins and several point-achieving finishes near the end of the championship. His two Barcelona results at the beginning of the series, however, weren’t as good: he ended up with a retirement and a 28th spot.
Graduating to the Formula 3 Championship in 2022 with Van Amersfoort Racing, he retired from the sprint race in Barcelona but finished in the point-awarding positions in the main event. He’d go one better the following season, racing with MP Motorsport once again, earning points in the sprint before making a return to the Barcelona podium with a second place in the feature race.
