'I'm glad you won' - Argentina's France Colapinto pokes fun at England
Photo: Race Pictures
17:06, 12 Jul
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A hero in Silverstone last weekend, Franco Colapinto faced some boos seven days on at Goodwood.
In the early hours of the morning, Argentina booked their 2026 World Cup semi-final spot against England, beating Switzerland 3-1 after extra time.
The Three Lions had earlier knocked out Norway, also in extra time, and Colapinto couldn’t help but poke fun at the home fans.
Colapinto quickly went from hero at Silverstone to rival at Goodwood (Photo: Race Pictures)
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One of the themes of the Goodwood weekend was rivalries, so the Buenos Aires native was quick to address the elephant in the room when that was mentioned.
Franco Colapinto jokes about England after Argentina's World Cup win
I’m scared of Bellingham only!- Franco Colapinto
“My favourite rival is England on Wednesday. I was praying for England to pass so we can beat them.”
The crowd that had gathered started to jeer, with Colapinto adding. “I’m surrounded by English people…I’m scared of [Jude] Bellingham only.”
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When it was pointed out by the presenter that Colapinto had signed the drivers’ wall with ‘vamos Argentina’ and ‘vamos [Lionel] Messi’ he finally decided to change the topic:
“I’m not speaking about this… We are going to do well, we keep pushing for it.”
The 23-year-old made the step up to Formula 1 in 2024, and has only represented English-based teams in Williams and now Alpine.
Real Madrid's Bellingham scored twice for England against Norway, causing some concern for Colapinto (Photo: Race Pictures)
Alpine driver explains why he loves racing in England
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Discussing his relationship with the country and his Goodwood debut, he added:
“There’s so many fans! Not as many as in Argentina but close…
“To see all these cars up close and how F1 developed over the years, seeing them all together in real life, especially at Goodwood, I think it’s the biggest festival in the world, when you are a motorsport lover and you follow it so so young, to come here and listen to these cars and see them rolling around it’s very special and very unique.
“A lot of England recently! First the sim, then Silverstone, then the sim again! I’m more in England than anywhere else. I love this place, Silverstone is one of my favourite tracks anywhere ever.”
As for the actual topic of F1 rivals, Colapinto was another to display the extraordinary legacy of Ayrton Senna.
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Senna's legacy is still unrivalled in F1 (Photo: RacePictures)
Franco Colapinto names Ayrton Senna as his childhood hero
The Brazilian icon tragically died in 1994 as a three-time world champion, but his impact was enough for Colapinto to grow up idolising him despite being born nine years later:
“Since I was very, very young, I’ve been a big fan of Ayrton Senna and the rivalry with Alain Prost; it’s been the biggest one, it’s the one I grew up with, unfortunately not liking Alain too much as I was a fan of Ayrton.
“Later on, I think he’s an amazing driver, but being such a fan of someone, it’s like the rivals of Ayrton were also my rivals; he was my hero since I was very young.
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“Niki [Lauda], James Hunt, there’s a lot of amazing rivalries, Lewis [Hamilton] and Max [Verstappen] before I got to Formula 1 is the latest one, I was following that a lot.
“Lewis was my hero but I was a big fan of Max so it was tricky. It’s very fun when those rivalries happen, especially when they’re in the same team it’s even better, and going through history and learning those rivalries I couldn’t see live.”
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