Who is Alpine Formula 1 driver Franco Colapinto? Age, nationality, stats and more

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Franco Colapinto represents the hopes of Argentina in Formula 1 after his shock debut with Williams, so here is everything you need to know about the Alpine reserve driver.

A costly crash in final practice at the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix by Logan Sargeant proved to be the last straw for Williams. The American had struggled to rise to the pinnacle of motorsport whilst with the Grove natives after his debut in the 2023 season as a product of their academy.

Like Sargeant, who stepped up from Formula 2 after one complete season, Colapinto earned his F1 Grand Prix debut as Williams promoted another graduate of their driver academy. He joined their development ranks in January 2023 after debuting in Formula 3 one year earlier.

Williams believed that Colapinto offered their best driver to partner Alex Albon for the rest of the 2024 Formula 1 season given Sargeant’s continued plight. The Argentine made his debut in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza and raced nine rounds before Carlos Sainz joined for 2025.

Sainz joining Williams meant there was no room at the Williams inn for Colapinto, so Alpine jumped at a chance to sign him as their reserve driver from the 2025 Formula 1 season. The Enstone crew gave Colapinto a multi-year contract after buying him out of his Williams deal.

Williams promoted Franco Colapinto from their academy for his Formula 1 debut

Colapinto caught Williams’ attention early into his junior career after an impressive switch to single-seaters, having also had success in go-karts. He joined their driver academy in 2023 fresh off of two wins in his rookie Formula 3 term with Sprint Race wins at Imola and Monza.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Success arrived early in Colapinto’s karting career, too, after taking the pre-junior title in the 2016 Argentine Championship. He even won the karting title at the Summer Youth Olympics of 2018 before taking the Spanish F4 title during Colapinto’s first full term in single-seaters.

Drivex School handed Colapinto his Spanish F4 debut in the final round of the 2018 season. Yet, despite his lack of experience, a maiden win arrived in the fourth race at the Circuito de Navarra. A total of 11 wins across the 21 races in 2019 then saw Colapinto clinch the crown.

Further titles were within Colapinto’s clutches over the Formula Renault Eurocup and Toyota Racing Series in 2020 plus the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series. But he ended each series in third place after tasting endurance racing throughout a stacked 2021 season with G-Drive Racing.

Along with fighting over race wins in the 2021 Formula Regional European Championship for MP Motorsport, a chance to experience prototype machinery in WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans arrived in 2021. He finished third at Le Mans beside Nyck de Vries and Roman Rusinov.

Franco Colapinto has contested 36 Formula 3 races and 22 in Formula 2

Colapinto doubled his time between endurance racing and single-seaters in just 2021 before focusing on Formula 3 in 2022. A return to MP Motorsport with Williams’ backing in 2023 let him secure fourth in Formula 3 before Colapinto debuted in F2 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

MP Motorsport further saw Colapinto secure his first points in Formula 2 at the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix when the Williams junior won the Sprint Race. He had finished seventh in the Australian Grand Prix’s Feature Race but was disqualified for a technical infringement.

Further Formula 2 podiums followed with second-place finishes in the Feature Races at the Spanish Grand Prix and Austrian Grand Prix. Williams then handed Colapinto his Formula 1 weekend debut at the 2024 British Grand Prix in a first practice appearance at Silverstone.

His FP1 display at Silverstone amazed Williams team principal James Vowles, who ultimately gave Colapinto the nod to replace Sargeant. It was a masterstroke, too, as Colapinto eclipsed Sargeant’s career F1 points tally of one in only his second race with P8 in the Azerbaijan GP.

But Colapinto cost Williams a fortune with crashes in qualifying and behind the safety car in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and in qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix to close out the 2024 season. So, Colapinto failed to find a race seat for 2025 and joined Alpine as a reserve driver.

After Jack Doohan completed six races for Alpine, the team decided to replace him with Colapinto from the Emilia Romagna GP after months of speculation.

So, with that in mind, F1 Oversteer takes a look at everything that you need to know about Colapinto including what the Alpine reserve driver is really like off – as well as on – a track…

Who is Alpine F1 driver Franco Colapinto?

Franco Colapinto is a promising Argentine racing driver who replaced Logan Sargeant driving for Williams for the remainder of the 2024 Formula 1 season to make his debut in the Italian Grand Prix. Colapinto left Williams before the 2025 season after two years in their academy. From there, he joined Alpine as a reserve driver and then made his race debut with the team at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

How old is Franco Colapinto? When was he born?

At the time of writing, Franco Colapinto is 22 years old and he was born on May 27 in 2003.

Where was Franco Colapinto born? What is his nationality?

Franco Colapinto was born in Pilar, which is a city set within the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Pilar recorded a continually increasing population of 394,754 in its 2022 census.

How tall is Franco Colapinto? What is his height in feet?

Standing at a height of 175cm, Franco Colapinto measures in at 5 ft 8 in.

How good is Franco Colapinto? What’s been said about him?

Whilst detailing why Williams replaced Logan Sargeant with Franco Colapinto from the 2024 Italian Grand Prix, team principal James Vowles noted that it was a chance for the Argentine to prove his potential. Vowles also praised Colapinto for his ‘great speed and huge potential’.

Williams’ sporting director, Sven Smeets, was also full of praise for Colapinto after he joined their driver academy. Smeets said in January 2023: “His career achievements since starting karting highlight Franco’s natural ability behind the wheel and what he’s capable of.”

His natural ability also saw Colapinto win the 2019 Spanish Formula 4 Championship with 11 wins from 21 races and a 98-point lead. It even only took Colapinto three races with G-Drive Racing in the 2021 European Le Mans Series to win for the first time in LMP2 at Paul Ricard.

Alpine executive adviser Flavio Briatore also praised Colapinto after signing him as a reserve driver in January 2025. Briatore noted: “We are very pleased to come to an agreement with Williams Racing to sign Franco Colapinto.

“Clearly, Franco is among the best young talents in motorsport right now. It is fair to say his appearance on the Formula 1 grid last year caught many, me included, by surprise and his performances have been very impressive for a rookie driver.”

Franco Colapinto’s career Formula 1 stats

As of the end of the 2025 Formula 1 season, Franco Colapinto has made 26 Grand Prix starts, after making his way back onto the F1 grid in Emilia-Romagna to replace Jack Doohan at Alpine.

He had previously enjoyed a positive start to his career in the series after replacing Logan Sargeant as a stand-in for Williams. His instant success in F1 even saw Argentina hold talks about reviving a Grand Prix in his native country.

Despite a strong performance in 2024 for Williams, Colapinto struggled at Alpine, although this could be credited to the peformance of the car. The team finished at the bottom of the constructors’ standings, being the only driver, other than Doohan, to not score a single point in 2025.