Franco Colapinto pulled off a daring and dramatic last-lap overtake to seize his first Formula 2 race win in Imola. Now, the Argentinian driver reveals to Feeder Series the breakthrough result came after a change in technique and an in-season test where he got more comfortable in the car.

By Steven Walton

Franco Colapinto joined MP Motorsport in F2 for 2024 after a fourth-place finish in Formula 3 last year.

Before the round in Imola, the Argentinian driver and Williams Driver Academy member had endured an inconsistent and unnoteworthy start to life in the series. He had only scored points twice and his best result was fourth in Melbourne’s sprint race.

Colapinto eclipsed those results in Imola. He took a superb and emotional race win in Saturday’s sprint and followed it up a day later with a respectable fifth-place finish – his best feature race result so far this year.

“A great weekend for us, we came back from a tough start and we took just some really good points … [I’m] happy and we need to continue this way pushing forward,” Colapinto told Feeder Series in an interview this week.

Colapinto more than doubled his points tally with his Imola results. He leapt up to seventh in the championship, putting him seven points behind his MP teammate, Dennis Hauger.

How Colapinto won in Imola

Colapinto’s Imola win was somewhat unexpected, given Hitech’s Paul Aron led much of the race after snatching the lead on the opening lap. “To be honest I was waiting a little bit, once I felt it was quite, quite tricky to overtake,” Colapinto said.

Colapinto ran second behind Aron throughout the race. He was able to stay close and the pair pulled away from the cars behind.

“I think the only way to pass was just stay a bit calm and wait towards the last few laps when the [tyre] deg [was] a bit bigger,” Colapinto said.

“I tried earlier in the race to do something, to attack a bit in the last sector, but it was not enough to have a chance … so then I just decided to wait and I think it was the right thing to do,” he said.

With just one lap to go, Aron had a wiggle out of the final corner, which helped Colapinto pull alongside in the braking zone for the Tamburello chicane.

Initially, Colapinto was on the outside of Aron, but Colapinto held on – only just – through the first part of the chicane. In the second part, the outside line becomes the inside line, and this gave Colapinto the better exit.

Colapinto had boldly seized the lead. He sprinted home, beating Aron by 1.7 seconds.

“I just went for it. I think it was a really really nice move, it was really tight as well. I think we were close to make quite a bit of contact, but luckily I could avoid him from the inside and still managed to stay on the outside, so it was, I think, a really nice way to end the race,” Colapinto said.

“It always tastes a bit better when it’s in the last lap, the emotions of the win, plus the emotions of the whole day go together and it’s just a much better combo,” he said. 

“A very special moment for a racing driver when you win in Formula 2 for the first time, it’s an amazing achievement and of course to have done it with this overtake makes it a lot more special.”

Barcelona test was an ‘important moment’

Colapinto revealed to Feeder Series how beneficial last month’s in-season test in Barcelona had been. The test allowed him to get comfortable with the F2 car, which he described as “a very, very difficult car to drive in terms of what you were driving before in any other category.”

Colapinto described the Barcelona test as an “important moment,” adding that he and the team have shown that “we have done a step after it.” The Imola sprint race was the first F2 race since the test.

“I think in the test at Barcelona and in the sim we worked a lot to change my technique a bit and it’s been, I think, a very big improvement at the moment,” he said.

Earlier in the interview, he said he thought “maybe” he was not doing an amazing job at the start of the year, before cutting himself off and saying, “I was not very comfortable with the car, to be honest.”

“I think after the test in Barcelona I found myself a lot more in a similar way to how I was feeling in the F3 car in terms of comfort and feeling, which makes it a lot more easy to find the lap times.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency