F1 star admits family had to make huge sacrifice to help his dream

Gasly and Colapinto in Barcelona — Photo: © IMAGO

Franco Colapinto

F1 star admits family had to make huge sacrifice to help his dream

It's not easy to make it as a racer!

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Friday 18 September 2026 14:04

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Franco Colapinto has revealed just how much his family sacrificed to make his F1 dream a reality.

One of the cold, hard truths of motorsport is that even a moderate career through the ranks in the junior ladder is ruinously expensive, with even a single season in the mainstream karting championships costing over £100,000 [BBC].

The Argentine told Spanish TV show La Revuelta that his father actually sold his house in order to fund the young racer's first full-time season above karting, putting him in the F4 Spanish Championship for 2019 – which he won comfortably, catching the eye of some bigger organisations.

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Colapinto moved from Argentina to Italy by himself when he was just 14 years old, with opportunities for high level racing and for teams to spot him scarce in South America.

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Colapinto reveals family sacrifice

"When I started racing in karting, it was with the dream of reaching F1 someday," he told the show. "My father had to sell the house so I could race in F4. There are far fewer possibilities and opportunities when you're from South America and want to dedicate yourself to F1. I came to Europe alone at 14 years old."

A former Williams academy driver, that part of Colapinto's story has actually been told before by his one-time boss James Vowles, who said back in 2024: “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.”

Other F1 drivers reveal families sold houses for junior careers

Colapinto isn't even the only driver on the grid with a similar story, with Liam Lawson revealing at around the same time as Vowles' 2024 interview: "My parents and my whole family really gave a lot, especially in the early years through go-karts.

"My parents sold their house so that I could keep racing. It's massive. They gave absolutely everything for me to be able to race, even just go-karts because it's so expensive."

Young Danish Mercedes reserve driver Fred Vesti has relayed a similar story in the last year too, revealing: “It’s the dream that I’ve worked for my whole life. My dad sold our family house when I was 15 and that shows the commitment from my family.

“We’ve spent everything we have, we’ve used all the energy in the world to get to this point and it would be silly not to believe that I can make it to Formula 1.”