Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Franco Colapinto turned a Buenos Aires demo run into a direct pitch for Formula 1’s return, drawing more than 500,000 fans on April 26 and telling the sport that Argentina "deserve[s] to have a race again."
The scale of the turnout gave the message its force. Tickets sold out weeks in advance, long lines formed in the free areas from early morning, and the crowd that packed Avenida del Libertador was larger than many grands prix attract over a full weekend. What was billed as a roadshow quickly became a public demonstration of how much appetite remains for F1 in a country that has not hosted a world championship race since 1998.
Colapinto had already framed the day that way before he got in the car. In a press conference ahead of the event, he said racing an Argentine Grand Prix was one of the things he wanted most in life and pointed to encouraging talks between the country and Formula 1. He said the redevelopment of the Oscar y Juan Galvez circuit was "a very big project" and "completely necessary" if F1 is to come back, adding that the process appears to be moving in the right direction even if there is still plenty of work to do.
He also tied any realistic return to what happens next at the venue. Colapinto said the key first test will be MotoGP’s planned visit in April 2027, with the rebuilt track needing to show it can operate at the required level before any F1 target for 2027 or 2028 becomes credible.
Sunday’s show was built to make the wider case. Colapinto completed two runs of around 15 minutes in a 2012 Lotus E20 in Alpine colors, using the sound of its 2.4-litre V8 and a series of donuts to fire up the crowd. He then switched to a replica Mercedes W196, the car associated with Juan Manuel Fangio’s title-winning era, wearing a retro-style helmet and waving the Argentine flag in a deliberate link between the country’s F1 past and the future it wants back.
Afterward, Colapinto made the point explicit. He said the fans were "the best in the world" and that the event was showing Formula 1 "that we deserve to return to the calendar and that we deserve to have a race again." He called the day a dream come true and said he was happy to share it with the people who had supported him for so long.
The response inside the paddock only reinforced the impression that Argentina had made itself hard to ignore. Maria Caterineu, Colapinto’s manager, said other F1 drivers could not believe the support he was receiving, adding that even Lando Norris had joked that if that many people were cheering for Franco, he wanted to be his friend. Luca Mazzocchi, Partner Experience Manager at BWT Alpine Formula One Team, said, "This is crazy. I can't believe it," and compared the passion around Colapinto to the following Fernando Alonso built in Spain during his Renault years.
That matters because Argentina’s case is no longer resting only on nostalgia or on Colapinto’s rise. The roadshow offered Formula 1 visible evidence of demand, a driver capable of mobilizing it, and a venue project that is now being judged against a timeline. If the Galvez redevelopment keeps progressing and MotoGP’s 2027 visit clears the next hurdle, Buenos Aires has given the strongest signal yet that an Argentine Grand Prix push is becoming more than an idea.