After a successful 2023 season in F3, and despite a less-than-ideal cameo in the 2023 Yas Marina F2 round, MP Motorsport promoted Franco Colapinto to their F2 line-up for the 2024 season. This proved to be a good decision for both driver and team as, despite competing in only 10 of the season’s 14 rounds, Colapinto scored 96 points, outperforming his teammate Dennis Hauger who scored 85.5 points from 12 rounds of racing.
A shaky start to the season
Though he would be a title contender until his early departure from the series, Colapinto’s 2024 F2 season would get off to a shaky start when he qualified 15th in the 2024 Sakhir F2 round. Though Colapinto’s set time was the same as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagómez, the Mexican driver was classified ahead as he had set his lap time earlier.
Unfortunately, Colapinto would not have a better time in the sprint race. He was issued a stop-go penalty for incorrect car placement. This effectively dashed any hopes for the Argentine to make his way up the field, and despite his best efforts, he crossed the line 18th, more than a minute behind Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney who claimed his first win of the season.
This disappointment did not deter Colapinto from putting his best foot forward in the next day’s feature race. After an impressive start, Colapinto found himself six places up before a collision between Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi brought out the Safety Car.
Colapinto would again benefit from a second Safety Car brought out in the later stages of the race. After normal racing conditions resumed, the Argentine fought his way up the field. He crossed the line P6 to claim his first eight points in F2.
Unfortunately, the MP Motorsport driver would suffer further disappointment just a week later in Jeddah. After qualifying a disappointing P13, he stalled in the sprint race. Despite his best efforts, he could not sufficiently recover and finished the race P11. A day later, in the feature race, he retired on Lap 14 due to a suspension failure brought on by a collision with the wall.
Mixed results in Melbourne
Like Bahrain, Melbourne would bring mixed results. After a less-than-impressive qualifying performance, Colapinto started the race from P13. However, he managed a careful yet brilliant drive in the chaotic sprint race and crossed the line fourth. This added another five points to his F2 tally.
Unfortunately, he faced bitter disappointment in the feature race. Though he crossed the line seventh, having worked his way up from P13, he was disqualified after stewards determined that his card had not completed a required pre-race procedure.
First win in Imola
If the feature race in Melbourne was the lowest point of Colapinto’s 2024 F2 season, the sprint race in Imola was the highest. Colapinto enjoyed a strong qualifying performance, finishing ninth of the 22 drivers. This earned him a start from P2 in the sprint race.
Despite a strong start off the line, Colapinto could not outpace Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Paul Aron who claimed the lead of the race after getting past his teammate Amaury Cordeel who had started from reverse-grid pole. However, Colapinto did not have the opportunity to mount an immediate defence as a major collision between Hauger, Fittipaldi, Dürksen, Hadjar and Staněk required the deployment of the Safety Car.
Despite a strong restart after the Safety Car was brought in, Colapinto remained in P3. This, however, did not last for long, as within a few laps, he reclaimed P2, getting past Cordeel after the latter went wide out of Turn 18. By Lap 15, Colapinto would be putting pressure on Aron, fighting him for the win. This battle lasted until the last lap when Colapinto claimed the lead after Aron suffered a slight oversteer.
Colapinto then held on to the lead and crossed the line first, just 1.7 seconds ahead of Aron. This victory added another 11 points to Colapinto’s tally, with him claiming the extra point after setting the fastest lap time of the race on Lap 12. Just one day later, in the feature race, he added another 10 points after finishing P5.
He followed his impressive performance in Italy with a P5 finish in the Monaco sprint race, before suffering a disappointing P13 finish in the feature race.
Podiums in Spain and Austria
The MP Motorsport driver returned to the podium in Spain. However, his weekend was far from a perfect one. After qualifying third, Colapinto started the 2024 Barcelona F2 round from P7. Unfortunately, the Argentine struggled with track limits throughout the race. He was, subsequently, demoted to 18th after stewards handed him a 10-second penalty for violating track limits more than five times during the race.
The feature race, however, would be kinder to the young driver who finished second, just 1.4 seconds behind race winner Jak Crawford, after a strong performance. This earned Colapinto his second podium finish of the 2024 F2 season. He would return to the podium one week later in Austria when, after a disappointing P11 finish in the sprint race, he finished the feature race in second, taking an extra point for the fastest lap of the race.
Disappointment in Spa-Francorchamps
Colapinto’s P2 finish in Austria would be the last time that he would stand on the podium in F2. In Silverstone, he missed out on the podium, finishing P5 and P4 in the sprint and feature races respectively. He followed this with a P5 finish in the sprint race of the 2024 Budapest F2 round and a disappointing P13 finish in the feature race.
After a mostly successful season, Colapinto went into the 10th round of the 2024 FIA Formula 2 championship with 96 points, still in contention for the championship despite Hadjar and Bortoleto having emerged as the favourites. Unfortunately, the 2024 Spa-Francorchamps round would be a disappointing one for the driver.
After qualifying seventh, Colapinto started the sprint race from P4. However, though he finished the race eighth, he was not awarded points as poor weather conditions resulted in there being of five laps of action. As less than 50 percent of the race was completed, only the top five finishers were awarded points.
Unfortunately, Colapinto would be further denied an opportunity to score points that weekend. He suffered an engine failure on the first lap of the feature race and could not complete the race. This would be a disappointing end to the Argentine’s F2 career.
An early departure from F2
Colapinto did not return to F2 for the 2024 Monza F2 round. Instead, he made his Formula 1 debut at the Monza Circuit that weekend.
After Logan Sargeant’s disastrous crash during the third free practice session of the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix in Zanvoort, Williams Racing announced that they had decided to part ways with the American driver. They named Colapinto, a member of the Williams Racing Driver Academy since 2023, as his replacement. With only nine rounds left in the season, and with Carlos Sainz set to partner with Alexander Albon in 2025, Williams contracted Colapinto to complete the remaining nine rounds of the F1 season. As this, naturally, ruled him out of the remaining four F2 rounds, MP Motorsport opted to replace him with F3 driver Oliver Goethe.
After a relatively impressive, though tumultuous, stint with Williams, Colapinto will not return to F2 for 2025. Instead, as announced in January 2025, Colapinto will remain in F1, this time serving as the BWT Alpine F1 Team’s reserve driver.
