- Franco Colapinto drew 600,000 fans to Buenos Aires for a historic street demo.
- A repainted 2012 Lotus E20 roared through Palermo streets for first time in 14 years.
- Argentina’s Formula 1 dream now has its strongest case in nearly three decades.
Franco Colapinto drove a Formula 1 car through the streets of Buenos Aires on Sunday, and 600,000 people showed up to watch.
The Alpine driver was the centrepiece of the Mercado Libre presents: Franco Colapinto Road Show Buenos Aires 2026, held in Palermo, the neighbourhood where he grew up.
When it was over, the 22-year-old had a clear message for Formula 1’s commercial leadership: Argentina deserves a race.
“We are the best fans in the world, and it is great to show that. Because we are showing Formula 1 that we deserve to return to the calendar and that we deserve to have a race again,” Colapinto said, as reported by Motorsport Week.
The event marked the first time in 14 years that an F1 car had been driven on Buenos Aires streets. Colapinto piloted a 2012 Lotus E20, repainted in Alpine colours, around a 2km circuit built for the occasion.
Colapinto’s call for a return to the calendar
The demonstration was not limited to the Lotus. Colapinto also drove the Mercedes W196. It’s the car that carried Juan Manuel Fangio to world titles in 1954 and 1955, while waving an Argentine flag to the crowd.
Earlier in the day, speaking on stage at the event’s Fan Zone alongside ESPN journalist Juan Fossaroli, Colapinto was direct about what he hoped the spectacle would achieve.
“Hopefully, with this show, we can demonstrate what we generate and that we can very soon have a Grand Prix in Argentina,” he told the crowd, as reported by Infobae.
He later described the day on Instagram as “one of the best days of my life.“ The Argentine added that driving an F1 car at home was “something epic” he would never forget.
He also reflected on the personal weight of the occasion.
“It is a dream come true. I’m very happy with the day we had today, enjoying it with everyone, with all my people who have supported me for such a long time,” he said.
A show that went far beyond the track
The road show was built to feel like more than a racing event. It included a fan forum, live music and various other activities spread across the venue.
The Argentine Air Force’s Historical Squadron flew over the circuit and painted the sky with blue and white smoke.
Buenos Aires city sports secretary Fabián Turnes told The Associated Press that planning for the exhibition had begun five months in advance.
Retired tennis player Diego Schwartzman attended, as did players from Boca Juniors.
One moment stood apart from the spectacle. After his first run in the Lotus, Colapinto was reunited with his grandmother at trackside.
His father, Aníbal Colapinto, told ESPN he felt “tremendous happiness, pride, and emotion seeing everything Franco is generating in the country and in the world.”
Jorge Macri, head of the Buenos Aires city government, said the joy Colapinto had brought to the city was “only comparable with the great celebrations of Argentine history,” according to Argentine news portal LA NACION.
Macri confirmed that Buenos Aires has already secured a MotoGP round for next year. He said the ambition is to bring Formula 1 back to the Autódromo in the near future.
Argentina last hosted a grand prix in 1998, when Michael Schumacher won for Ferrari at the Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez.
Financial difficulties followed, and a planned 1999 race was cancelled. Subsequent attempts to revive the event, including street circuit talks in Mar del Plata in 2012, have all come to nothing.
Colapinto’s journey and the bigger picture
Colapinto’s popularity in Argentina has grown quickly.
He became the first Argentine driver to compete in the World Championship since Gastón Mazzacane in 2001. Williams gave him his debut midway through the 2024 season.
He scored points in two of his first four races before moving to Alpine in 2025 as a replacement for Jack Doohan from round seven onwards.
Now in his first full season, Colapinto scored his first point for Alpine with a tenth-place finish at the Chinese Grand Prix.
The team sits fifth in the constructors’ championship with 16 points. Alpine is competing closely with Haas and Red Bull.
Sunday’s scenes in Buenos Aires have given the campaign for an Argentine grand prix a momentum it has not had in decades.
The financial and logistical questions between Formula 1’s leadership and Argentine authorities remain unresolved. But the size of the crowd and the depth of feeling it represented have made the argument harder to ignore.
Colapinto and Alpine next travel to Miami for the fourth round of the 2026 season.
