Several F1 drivers have graced the Winter Olympics in the past (Image: Getty)

Olympic history is littered with the names of many huge sporting stars who have had the chance to represent their country at the Games. Andy Murray added to his Wimbledon and US Open Grand Slam tennis successes with two Gold Medals for Team GB, while the modern addition of golf to the Games has seen the likes of Britain’s Justin Rose and American Scottie Scheffler take glory.

However, there is much less scope for any motorsport driver to follow in their footsteps. While there was hope for a time that karting might be selected for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, it was overlooked. And the Olympic Charter’s rule that ” sports, disciplines or events in which performance depends essentially on mechanical propulsion are not acceptable” may prove difficult to overcome in the future.

Still, one driver on the current F1 grid has something of an Olympic past. Franco Colapinto was among the participants at the 2018 Youth Olympics which was held in Buenos Aires. Then aged 15, the youngster born in Pilar, on the outskirts of Argentina’s capital city, took part in and won a karting race, but did not win a medal as it was only a demonstration rather than an official event.

Other than Alpine racer Colapinto, other F1 drivers in history who have fancied grabbing a slice of Olympic history for themselves have had to pivot to other disciplines. That includes four drivers who went from entering an F1 race to switching to another speedy sport so they could attempt to take part in the Winter Olympics.

Franco Colapinto won an E-karting event at the youth Olympics in 2018 (Image: Getty)

All of them did not have long spells in F1, with London-born Spaniard Alfonso de Portago the one boasting the highest number of race starts with just five. He made his F1 debut in 1956, driving with Ferrari no less, and stood on the podium at the British Grand Prix, just his second race in the World Championship, in a shared drive with Peter Collins.

In that same year, he was also part of the Spanish bobsleigh team at the Games in Cortina, Italy, which happens to be co-hosting this year’s Winter Olympics with Milan. Despite having little experience, the two-man bob, steered by De Portago, finished fourth and narrowly missed out on a medal by just 0.16 seconds. He never got the chance to try again, killed in 1957 in a bloody crash at the Mille Miglia motor race.

Two other F1 racers also tried their hand at the bobsleigh – American Bob Said and Britain’s Robin Widdows, who started one F1 Grand Prix each, both took part in two Winter Olympics, but neither won a medal. While she never entered an F1 race, former Sauber test driver Simona de Silvestro is set to represent home nation Italy in the two-woman bob at this month’s Games.

The other former F1 driver to appear at the Winter Olympics was Britain’s Divina Galica, who entered three Grands Prix in the 1970s but did not qualify for any of them, though she did start a handful of Formula 2 races. Her spell in motorsport came after she had represented Britain as a downhill skiier at three Games between 1964 and 1972, later adding a first attempt at speed skiing as a 47-year-old at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.