Champion’s heart: why Colapinto cried after F1’s Italian Grand Prix | OneFootball

Franco Colapinto breathes motorsport. He lives for this sport and loves it passionately. He is a student of the discipline, ever since he was a child and went to the library at his school in Pilar to look for books about Juan Manuel Fangio. His heart races every time he is behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car. It is a feeling. He feels racing so deeply that this Sunday he knew he was capable of more, and that is why he was in tears at the end of the Italian Grand Prix, where he delivered a tremendous race that went beyond his return to the points.

At the Monza National Autodrome, the 23-year-old Argentine driver had the eight aerodynamic updates on his Alpine A526. His car took a leap in quality and that allowed the Buenos Aires native to fight further up the order. He matched his best qualifying result by finishing eighth, something he had already achieved in Miami this year.

Yesterday he started seventh due to Kimi Antonelli’s penalty for changing the engine in his Mercedes, and he made another frenetic start. He quickly moved up to third after overtaking Max Verstappen (Red Bull), no less. He battled with the four-time world champion, and then came his spin, which happened while fighting at the front and not in the back of the field.

The first thing that must be highlighted is the quick reaction from the Pilar native. He turned the page and, despite rejoining in 16th, he recovered, fought, and moved forward on pure talent to make overtakes. He also showed intelligence in managing energy, as happened in the double pass within a few meters on Ollie Bearman (Haas) and Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi).

If you add the four places he gained at the start and the seven he made up after recovering from his spin, he gained eleven positions over the course of the race. It is true that, after the start, Lewis Hamilton got tangled up with his Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc, and that Leclerc ended up in the barriers. But that is part of motorsport. You capitalize on others’ problems, period. What Colapinto did should not be undervalued.

Franco’s show of character and his mental strength to move forward with a car that suffered floor damage from his spin speak of someone with a champion’s heart. Someone who goes all out until the checkered flag falls, because that is when races end; Fangio himself always used to say so. He finished ninth and scored two points. He has scored points in half of the Grands Prix contested in 2026. Although that was not the most important thing: more important was how he responded to adversity, and his fighting spirit inspires the thousands of kids racing karts in Argentina. This Sunday Franco sent the message that you must never give up.

But Colapinto lives motorsport intensely, and his potential to fight further ahead led to his frustration. First, his engineer, Stuart Barlow, comforted him and acknowledged his great work. Then the Buenos Aires native’s emotion and self-criticism continued and, upon reaching the mixed zone, he broke down while speaking with ESPN. “A tough race. Very frustrating. I had a great opportunity and I didn’t make the most of it. Sad about that. A great race and a serious mistake,” and at that point his voice broke, as if underlining how he felt. “I wasted a great opportunity for myself and for the team. Learn from this,” he said, visibly emotional. In fact, the voice of Alpine press chief Sam Mallinson can be heard asking for a moment so Franco could keep talking.

Later it was Alpine’s executive advisor and strongman himself, Flavio Briatore, who acknowledged Colapinto’s performance: “Both drivers have done a fantastic job over the weekend. It was great that Pierre was able to enjoy his moment with the team yesterday, and Franco drove a brilliant race to come back through the field and score valuable points for the team.”

Those tears go beyond the pain of missing out on the fight at the front, although it should be noted that his teammate, Pierre Gasly, took pole position, led the opening meters, but then could not hold off the pace of superior cars such as the Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull. Still, Franco felt he had more in him.

Cry, Franco. Let out your frustration. Because those who truly feel motorsport get emotional knowing they could have given more. Like on January 13, 1980, when Carlos Alberto Reutemann burst into tears after retiring due to the overheating Cosworth engine in his Williams at the Oscar and Juan Gálvez Buenos Aires City Autodrome. Lole knew it was one of his last chances to win in front of his home crowd.

His tears are also those of that boy whose family’s effort to get him racing in Europe included the sale of a house by his father, Aníbal, to finance his Spanish Formula 4 season, and Franco repaid him with the title. His father accompanied him this weekend in Monza, and perhaps Franco wanted to give him his best result in F1. They both know everything they went through to get here, and the emotional hug on November 28, 2023, the day Franco got into an F1 car for the first time, during the Rookie Test in Abu Dhabi, said it all. “I couldn’t miss it, I had to be in Abu Dhabi,” Colapinto’s father once told Infobae.

The same tears he showed the whole world live when he retired from one of the Formula 2 races in 2024, when a spin left him with nothing. He got out of his Dallara and Colapinto cried. He did not care about the cameras. His pain ran even deeper at a time when he still did not have the budget secured to complete the season in the category just below F1. Times when he was risking everything to make the big leap.

That chance came thanks to James Vowles, the head of Williams, who would even have wanted to promote him directly as a full-time starter, but the interests of Dorilton Capital, the investment group that owns the British team, reportedly imposed the name of Carlos Sainz because they wanted an experienced driver. Yet Franco responded once again and repaid Uncle James for his trust by scoring four points in his second race in F1, on an unknown circuit such as the demanding Baku street track in Azerbaijan.

This Sunday there was no pressure. He had already been announced as a full-time driver for 2027 at Alpine. But when an athlete loves what he does that much, the emotion of helplessness at wanting to give more can lead to tears, as happened with Lionel Messi in the final of the 2024 Copa América in the United States.

Colapinto shows himself just as he is: authentic, genuine, and his essence does not change even though he is in the big circus. He is still the same boy who was amazed to see the replica of Lightning McQueen in the Monza pits and went over to it, remembering those days when he was very little and enjoyed the children’s movie.

Today there are guarantees, security, peace of mind, and a landscape that points to at least 15 years of Colapinto in F1, because he earned that place. Even so, the tears also belong to that 14-year-old boy who lived alone in a karting factory and 10,000 kilometers away from his family. Franco sacrificed everything for his dream. He achieved it, and he deserves it.

This Sunday he felt frustration because he believed he could fight further up. But Franco Colapinto can rest assured that this is only the beginning, and it confirms what he can do with a competitive car. Because the great ones are defined by how they get back up and how they respond. They come back better, and that is what he showed this Sunday at Monza. The Argentine has a champion’s heart, and in his country he has 47 million fans behind him.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.