A number of former motorsport stars have represented their international locations on the quadrennial Summer season and Winter Video games.
A number of F1 drivers have graced the Winter Olympics up to now (Picture: Getty)
Olympic historical past is plagued by the names of many enormous sporting stars who’ve had the prospect to signify their nation on the Video games. Andy Murray added to his Wimbledon and US Open Grand Slam tennis successes with two Gold Medals for Group GB, whereas the trendy addition of golf to the Video games has seen the likes of Britain’s Justin Rose and American Scottie Scheffler take glory.
Nevertheless, there may be a lot much less scope for any motorsport driver to comply with of their footsteps. Whereas there was hope for a time that karting is likely to be chosen for the 2028 Summer season Olympics in Los Angeles, it was neglected. And the Olympic Constitution’s rule that ” sports activities, disciplines or occasions by which efficiency relies upon basically on mechanical propulsion aren’t acceptable” might show troublesome to beat sooner or later.
Nonetheless, one driver on the present F1 grid has one thing of an Olympic previous. Franco Colapinto was among the many members on the 2018 Youth Olympics which was held in Buenos Aires. Then aged 15, the teenager born in Pilar, on the outskirts of Argentina’s capital metropolis, took half in and received a karting race, however didn’t win a medal because it was solely an indication quite than an official occasion.
Aside from Alpine racer Colapinto, different F1 drivers in historical past who’ve fancied grabbing a slice of Olympic historical past for themselves have needed to pivot to different disciplines. That features 4 drivers who went from getting into an F1 race to switching to a different speedy sport so they may try to participate within the Winter Olympics.
All of them didn’t have lengthy spells in F1, with London-born Spaniard Alfonso de Portago the one boasting the best variety of race begins with simply 5. He made his F1 debut in 1956, driving with Ferrari no much less, and stood on the rostrum on the British Grand Prix, simply his second race within the World Championship, in a shared drive with Peter Collins.
In that very same 12 months, he was additionally a part of the Spanish bobsleigh workforce on the Video games in Cortina, Italy, which occurs to be co-hosting this 12 months’s Winter Olympics with Milan. Regardless of having little expertise, the two-man bob, steered by De Portago, completed fourth and narrowly missed out on a medal by simply 0.16 seconds. He by no means acquired the prospect to attempt once more, killed in 1957 in a bloody crash on the Mille Miglia motor race.
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Two different F1 racers additionally tried their hand on the bobsleigh – American Bob Stated and Britain’s Robin Widdows, who began one F1 Grand Prix every, each took half in two Winter Olympics, however neither received a medal. Whereas she by no means entered an F1 race, former Sauber take a look at driver Simona de Silvestro is about to signify dwelling nation Italy within the two-woman bob at this month’s Video games.
The opposite former F1 driver to seem on the Winter Olympics was Britain’s Divina Galica, who entered three Grands Prix within the Nineteen Seventies however didn’t qualify for any of them, although she did begin a handful of Formulation 2 races. Her spell in motorsport got here after she had represented Britain as a downhill skiier at three Video games between 1964 and 1972, later including a primary try at pace snowboarding as a 47-year-old on the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.
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