Some drivers need years for the industry to notice them. And then there are drivers like Mattia Colnaghi, who with just two years competing in single-seaters already have two championships, the backing of Formula 1’s most successful junior programme and a seat in F3 competing at the same circuits as Formula 1 drivers. All before turning 18.
Mattia Colnaghi was born on July 26 2008 in Monza, the Italian city that gives its name to the oldest continuously-used circuit in the world. Growing up in Monza with a passion for motorsport is practically unavoidable, but in Colnaghi’s case there is a second dimension that makes him especially particular: his mother is Argentine, from Patagonia. That dual identity, Italian on his father’s side and birthplace, Argentine on his mother’s side, is literally sewn into his race suit, where he carries the flags of both countries. And in Argentina his story has generated the same enthusiasm as that of Franco Colapinto a few years earlier: the Italo-Argentine climbing the ladder.
Karting: the starting point
Colnaghi began his karting career in 2020 at just 11 years old, competing in the Trofeo Italiano Easykart in the Easykart 60 category, finishing seventh. In 2022 he raced with Forza Racing in the OK Junior category at the Trofeo delle Industrie and made his CIK-FIA World Championship debut, finishing twenty-sixth. In 2023 he moved up to the OK category, finishing fifteenth in the CIK-FIA European Championship and sixth in the CIK-FIA World Championship driving for CRG. Those results already placed him as one of the European karting talents to watch.
But the real story of Colnaghi began when he left karts and moved to single-seaters.
2024: Single-seater debut and Spanish F4 title at the first attempt
In 2024 Colnaghi made his single-seater debut with MP Motorsport in the Formula Winter Series, competing in the first two rounds of the season. It was a low-profile introduction to the world of open-wheel cars, designed for the young Italian to begin feeling the difference between a kart and an F4 single-seater.
Then came the Richard Mille Young Talent Shootout, the selection process MP Motorsport organised to identify the most promising talents for their F4 programme. Colnaghi won it. And with that triumph came the announcement of his participation in the 2024 Spanish Formula 4 Championship with MP Motorsport.
What followed was one of the most notable debuts in the recent history of the Spanish category. Colnaghi started the year inconsistently, with just an eighth place in the opening rounds despite claiming his first pole in the third race. Then came Paul Ricard: double victory. Then Jerez and Barcelona: four victories in the next five rounds. With that run of results he took the championship lead from the previously dominant Keanu Al Azhari. In the season’s final race he finished fifth, enough to win the title by ten points. Six victories, twelve podiums, five poles, five fastest laps: first year in single-seaters, first championship.
2025: Eurocup-3 and the Red Bull signing
With the Spanish F4 championship in hand, Colnaghi stayed with MP Motorsport for 2025 in the Eurocup-3, the next rung on the ladder before F3. And he did it again: won that too. Five victories, ten podiums, four poles, 256 points. 2025 Eurocup-3 champion. Second year in single-seaters, second championship.
It was in August 2025, with Colnaghi leading the Eurocup-3, that confirmation of the Red Bull junior signing arrived. Red Bull’s statement was direct: the Italo-Argentine became one of the youngest drivers ever to join the Austrian team’s junior programme, the one that produced Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto himself.
Helmut Marko, the legendary director of Red Bull’s junior programme, personally backs the signing. MP Motorsport’s team principal Sander Dorsman also expressed the moment’s significance: moving up to FIA F3 with Mattia is a proud moment for us. We immediately recognised his talent when he joined us as a young teenager in the winter of 2023-24, and it was a joy to see that talent truly accelerate in Spanish F4, resulting in title-winning glory in his first year out of karts.
He also competed in the 2025 Macau Grand Prix, finishing fourth, a more than respectable result for someone in their second year of single-seaters at one of the world’s most demanding circuits.
2026: F3 with MP Motorsport and Red Bull — the next test
For 2026 Colnaghi stays with MP Motorsport, the team that has been with him from the beginning, but takes the step up to FIA Formula 3, competing in the same paddock as F2 and F1 drivers on Grand Prix weekends. It is his third year in single-seaters. At 17 years old at the start of the season, he is one of the youngest drivers on the 2026 F3 grid.
After the Melbourne opener, where he finished twelfth with 1 point following a Feature Race penalty, Colnaghi has the entire season ahead to show what his two championships mean in the context of Formula 3’s intensity.
Key quotes and curiosities
Colnaghi in the Red Bull and F3 signing announcement: I am super excited about the opportunity handed to me by MP Motorsport and the Red Bull Junior Team. Joining the Grand Prix weekends as a Formula 3 driver is a dream come true.
Colnaghi on his ideal wet weather driver: definitely Max. I think he has proved time and time again that he is just the best in the wet, he has a different feeling for the car.
Colnaghi on the driver with the best race intelligence: I think Sebastian Vettel. To be honest, his championships in the 2010s, he proved he is able to think while he is in the car and do different things, multitasking really well.
Among the curiosities: Colnaghi was born in Monza on July 26 2008, exactly 86 years after the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza opened in 1922. Growing up literally in the city of the fastest circuit on the F1 calendar and becoming a driver in Red Bull’s junior programme is one of the most cinematic origins in the current junior paddock. And his dual Italian-Argentine nationality is unique in the current European junior paddock, where his story connects directly with Franco Colapinto as the second driver of Argentine origin to climb the European ladder within four years.
Sources: Wikipedia Mattia Colnaghi English, FIA Formula 3 official fiaformula3.com, MP Motorsport official mpmotorsport.com, Derechadiario.com, Accelerating News, Driver Database, Formula Scout
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