Newly signed Red Bull junior Mattia Colnaghi currently leads the Eurocup-3 standings with MP Motorsport and will move up to Formula 3 next year with the Dutch outfit. The 2024 Spanish F4 champion joined the Feeder Series Podcast to discuss his year so far, reveal how he linked up with Red Bull and answer questions from listeners. 

By Seb Tirado

In a tight battle with MP Motorsport stablemate Maciej Gładysz for the Spanish Winter Championship title earlier this year, Colnaghi took two wins and two further podiums, but he ultimately lost out on the championship in the final round at Aragón. A crash in race one sent him to the back of the field, and fuel injector issues in qualifying for race two put him 21st on the grid, from where he recovered only to 13th by the chequered flag.

In the main Eurocup-3 season so far, Colnaghi has brought his victory tally to four. The 17-year-old leads the standings by 12 points over Valerio Rinicella, another of his MP teammates.

The winter series was not Colnaghi’s first experience in FRegional machinery. That came when he competed in last year’s inaugural FR World Cup at the Macau Grand Prix. Though he failed to finish both the qualifying race and the main race, he still holds fond memories of the experience, as he shared with Feeder Series Podcast host Jim Kimberley and Eurocup-3 editor Seb Tirado. 

“[It was] not the best weekend in terms of results,” he said. “But just the experience of being there and racing in Macau, which is a really nice place to visit, was incredible.”

Not only was the event his competitive debut in FR machinery, but it was also his first time racing on any street track, and few are as fearsome as the 6.120-kilometre Guia Circuit. Did he find this double challenge intimidating at all?

“It was at first, but then you get the hang of it and you’re like, ‘Okay, send it. Let’s see what happens!’” he answered.

“It’s not a track you often see, because it is a really on-the-limit track. You could say a dangerous track! But the emotion of racing in these streets with all the fans, and obviously such tight corners, is just incredible.” 

On 20 August, Colnaghi was announced to be joining the Red Bull Junior Team. After being first contacted last November, Colnaghi continued negotiations with Red Bull after the opening round of Eurocup-3 at the Red Bull Ring in May. He got the chance to meet programme advisor Helmut Marko at the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks later. 

“I met Helmut in Barcelona on the F1 weekend when I was there with the [MP] F3 team,” he said. “The opportunity popped up when it was still quite early stages to talk with Dr Helmut and meet him.”

Even with the possibility of opportunities with other driver academies, Colnaghi said that the choice to engage with Red Bull was ‘quite obvious’.

“Red Bull was the one that showed the most interest, from already the end of last year,” he explained. “Judging by that, you normally choose the one that seems the most interested in you.” 

Hear more from Mattia Colnaghi in the latest Feeder Series Podcast episode, released 2 September.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency