F1: Franco Colapinto and the path that could have taken it to McLaren
The Drivex team with which the Argentine became Spanish F4 champion had a project to take him to the Woking team development program. But the course was another.
These days, Franco Colapinto could be a teammate in Lando Norris in McLaren. Or no, you will never know. The “What would have happened if …?” It is a phrase that loses meaning because the answer jumps alone: it does not happen. End of history. But here there is an argument and a concrete and real story: Alpine’s reserve pilot could have been part of McLaren’s development program, but his own Decisions and his Anibal dad changed his fate.
Everything dates back to 2019. The Argentine then ran with the Drivex team in the Spanish formula 4. The team was founded in 2003 by Miguel Ángel de Castro and Pedro de la Rosa, with the support of businessman Jaime Bergel. In his first full season in the F4 of Spain, Franco took the title (the only one he got in his sports career). His talent and performance caught the attention of the Popes of Drivex, who began planning the future of the young runner.
Bergel and De Castro gathered with the collapint and raised the possibility of going to the McLaren simulator. For Bergel, the ideal was that the 2019 season first ended and then perform the test. The businessman crossed emails with his friend Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, who accepted, not only upload it to the simulator, but also invest in Franco by 2020.
With Brown’s financial support and under McLaren’s wing, the plan was that Collapinto ran in 2020 in Euroformula and then jump to formula 2. SI Franco and his dad would have accepted that path, today he could be sitting in an MCL39 as partner of Lando Norris. Or maybe not. The pilot closed ranks with new managers, left Drivex and his path to the F1 finally had another outcome: arrival to Williams and 9 races in the 2024 season, and the subsequent signing as a reserve pilot in Alpine.
