"Franco Colapinto's father sold his house": James Vowles shares Williams driver's remarkable journey to F1

Williams driver Franco Colapinto has had a remarkable journey to F1, with Vowles sharing how Colapinto's father sold his house to fund his son's F4 championship run. The Argentinian has turned heads in just a handful of races this season and has garnered a lot of attention. Franco was racing in Formula 2 this season backed by the Grove-based team and had decent success as well.

When the situation with Logan Sargeant at the team became untenable, Williams started looking around for options to replace him mid-season, with multiple names popping up, including that of Liam Lawson and Mick Schumacher. The deal with Lawson didn't work out because of certain conditions put forth by Red Bull, while the German driver represented by Mercedes was overlooked for Franco Colapinto.

In his limited stint with the team, Franco Colapinto has not only impressed everyone but surprised them as well with the level of his performance. In all three races in Monza, Baku, and Singapore, he's been very close to Alex Albon and even outqualified him in one of the races.

Speaking to Wall Street Journal on September 19, Williams boss James Vowles detailed the Argentinian driver's journey, revealing Colapinto's father had to sell his house for his son to race in the Spanish F4 championship.

Franco Colapinto won the F4 championship and that's when he came on the radar of James Vowles and was guided through the ranks. Vowles revealed his shock when Franco first stepped in the F1 car in Silverstone early in the year and was right on Alex Albon's pace from the start. On his decision to put Franco in the car, Vowles said,

"Franco, the whole world didn't know his name, I guarantee you, until about a month ago. Now he's fairly known, but he was very special, just wasn't known to the world. His father sold his house for him to go and do one championship which is the F4 championship, which is how I spotted him. He won in a team that was not at the right level, but he won, and that opened the door for him," Vowles said.

Talking about how he was impressed with the young Argentine's ability to adapt to F1 seamlessly and even match the pace of Alex Albon, Vowels said:

"Then we put him into our simulator and he did thousands of kilometres, put him into Formula 2 and he started winning races and then gave him the opportunity in a Formula 1 car at Silverstone. What he did, I was caught off-guard, I didn't expect what he did in the car and what was visible was that he was on the pace of Alex. That doesn't happen, it shouldn't happen," he added.

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Franco Colapinto on his first points finish

Franco Colapinto has already ended up scoring points in F1. The driver had a strong weekend in Baku where he outqualified teammate Alex Albon and also ended up finishing the race in points to kick off his F1 journey on a positive note.

The driver was questioned about how he felt after a tiresome race in Baku, as it was impacted late by the Carlos Sainz-Sergio Perez crash. Looking back at the race and reflecting on his first points finish, Colapinto said,

“It feels fantastic to be honest. I am very happy, very proud of the team. What we have achieved together is incredible and I am delighted for the job and the work we have been doing. A lot of effort goes into these points and we already climbed one position in the constructors’ championship and it’s only my second race together and we scored a lot of points together with Alex so it’s just an amazing result for the team," he said.

Franco Colapinto has only a few races left this season. While he doesn't have a contract in place for 2025, it will be interesting to see what James Vowles' approach is going to be for the young driver's future considering his promising performances of late.