The unseen struggle of chasing an F1 dream

It is a popular myth that racing drivers are all mega-rich and enjoy the sort of lifestyle that us mere mortals can scarcely dream of. While there are those that revolve in these circles, there is a large number who, while far from living on the breadline, very much spend their career with very little job security and are forced to battle for every penny they can muster.

This is especially true for drivers who are forced to leave home at a young age and travel to Europe, where the vast majority of opportunities can be found. Franco Colapinto is one such example of this. Having upped sticks from Argentina aged 14, he now finds himself part of the Williams Driver Academy alongside the likes of Zak O’Sullivan and Jamie Chadwick, with a Formula 2 race win to his name and a maiden Formula 1 test in his back pocket.

"I just go [home] for Christmas and New Year since I was 14 and went to live alone in Italy, and I think that’s a thing that sometimes people don’t know or understand about someone from Argentina or South America coming [to Europe]," Colapinto tells Autosport.

"It is so hard for us when you have to come at such a young age. It’s so much more professional here if you want to break into Formula 1.

"It was very easy for me to make that decision because I knew what I wanted to do. But, for my family, to leave me alone to come to a country where I did not know the language and going to a place where I had no idea how things were, and staying in a factory, it was very hard for them.

"It is very hard for me as well. But I am doing what I love and am trying to achieve what I have worked for such a long time. It feels normal and the right thing to do. But I know that for family, it is very hard."

Colapinto's breakthrough F3 win came in only his second weekend, as he took the flag in the 2022 Imola sprint race

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Part of the unseen challenge comes after stepping out of the cockpit as, for the vast majority of drivers, there are far more tough days than positive ones. Without a familial shoulder to lean on in these moments, Colapinto admits to a sense of loneliness.

"It has started to feel more normal," he explains. "But when you have bad races or results, or you are just struggling in some part of the year, it is hard because you arrive back at home and are alone whilst European drivers have flights back home and are with family.

"It is, I think, so much easier [for them] in terms of support and it is something we struggle with. Of course, now I am much more mature and I have grown up since I came to Europe for the first time. But, at the beginning, it was hard. That is what really makes you grow a lot.

"When I did Le Mans at 17 years old, it was a very good experience but, of course, going to endurance so early, it makes you feel that Formula 1 is a bit further away suddenly"
Franco Colapinto

"Of course, when you win, it is always much easier because everyone is on your side, everything is going well and that is when you have everyone next to you. The really tough moment is when nothing goes so well and you have no one, or not a lot of people, to be around you or next to you. That is when you really feel the need for your family."

Colapinto has worked his way through predominantly single seater categories since winning the Spanish F4 title in 2019, but has also competed in sportscars. He was a race-winner when he stepped into the European Le Mans Series in 2021, and made his debut in the blue-riband Le Mans 24 Hours that same year where he finished seventh in LMP2 with an Algarve Pro Racing ORECA entered under the G-Drive banner.

Other than the Argentinian, only Juan Manuel Correa and Ritomo Miyata have contested the Le Mans 24 Hours on the current F2 grid, although Kush Maini also has World Endurance Championship experience after a one-off appearance in Bahrain in 2021.

Colapinto also raced in the Formula Regional European Series that replaced the Formula Renault Eurocup, and made his GT3 debut in a WRT-run Audi in the Spa 24 Hours. But although Colapinto was broadening his horizons in different series, he grew concerned that he was straying "off the path to Formula 1".

Colapinto feared he had strayed from the path to F1 when briefly switching to endurance racing

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

"My managers were still putting me in a place to be fighting up there in championships and to get a lot of experience and always be surrounded by people that I could learn quite a lot from," he says of the Bullet Sports Management agency headed up by FIA GT champion Jamie Campbell-Walter. “When I did Le Mans at 17 years old, it was a very good experience but, of course, going to endurance so early, it makes you feel that Formula 1 is a bit further away suddenly.

"When I started doing Formula 4, I won the championship. But after that, I had no budget for anything else and that is where my managers found me and started to work with me to try to find sponsors and investors to try to fund my career.

"They have done amazingly well, with no budget at all, at finding people from Europe in the beginning. We managed to race in Formula Renault and MP as well have been super-supportive and in motorsport with me for most of my career, so they have been a very big part of this journey.

"It has been up and down just because of the budget. You arrive to January or February and you don’t know yet whether you are going to race, and that makes it feel a bit tense and you are anxious to know if you are going to race or not.

"At some point, it even starts to feel a bit normal to arrive in February and not know where you are going to race or with which team. But it is not normal."

In January 2023, Colapinto achieved his “dream” of becoming affiliated with an F1 team when he was enrolled on the Williams Driver Academy, adding further fuel to his desire to secure an F1 race seat.

A part of the Williams Driver Academy, Colapinto has enjoyed his first taste of F1 machinery

Photo by: Williams

These hopes were given a boost by his maiden F2 victory in the Imola sprint race, secured with a bold last-lap overtake on Paul Aron, before finishing fifth in the later feature outing. Having taken four top-five finishes in six races, Colapinto is one of the form drivers in the category.

This is despite a limited testing programme, with the tighter purse strings he is forced to work with limiting him to only the official sessions, such as the recent F2 test in Spain.

What makes this more remarkable is that this has been achieved without having the budget in place to finish the season. Colapinto reveals: "We are suffering with the budget to complete the Formula 2 season and were suffering with the budget to complete the Formula 3 season.

"I think that lack of preparation is what no one sees and, from my side, my preparation has been done during the season, which made the first few races difficult and made it look like not a fantastic start of the year, but I was still getting up to speed. I was still fixing things in a race weekend that you only have a 45-minute practice session for and you only have four or five push laps before you’re straight into qualifying."

"It is a part of my life nowadays and to arrive where I want, this is the way, and I am super-happy to do it" Franco Colapinto

Asked if, considering the relative lack of testing, he believes his achievements are being overlooked compared to the steady start of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, a driver who has been heavily linked to be Lewis Hamilton's replacement at the Mercedes F1 team in 2025, he added: "That’s the biggest difference that I have with many other drivers and that’s what maybe I paid for a bit in this first part of the year. People that have so much support as Antonelli, they have tested on so many tracks, they have been to Qatar already and tracks that would be impossible to think about testing at for us."

Despite, and possibly because of the "tough" avenue he has forged to climb the motorsport pyramid, Colapinto is determined to make the final step.

Turning back to the topic of his parents, he concludes: "Winning a race in Formula 2, I know how proud they are of this and they have been watching the races together in Argentina and they have supported me so much in every decision I have made.

"Of course, they miss me so much but it is a part of my life nowadays and to arrive where I want, this is the way, and I am super-happy to do it and keep doing it for the rest of my life."