The arrival of Franco Colapinto to Formula 1 changed the paradigm of young Argentine drivers who began to look at Europe as an alternative instead of continuing at the national level.The case of Nicolás Varrone changed history as soon as he went from long-term racing (Endurance) to Formula 2. Nazareno López Cesarato follows a similar path, who last year was champion in the Formula Ultimate Cup in Europe and debuted in long-term competitions with Audi.This season he will seek to continue in the world of Endurance and the 19-year-old plans his campaign on the international level.Infobae spoke with the Buenos Aires driver, who has a special story, since he fell in love with motorsports for watching the old Speed Racer series (Meteoro) as a child, despite not being a contemporary of it.
“In my family, no one is involved in motorsports. But ever since I was a child I loved cars and I watched the old Meteoro series and I remembered all the episodes by heart. Then, well, when Cars came out I became addicted too and watched it twice a day. I had several collector cars, I cleaned them, took care of them and did races all the time,” remembers the one from Villa Urquiza.
The confinement in the COVID-19 pandemic led him to experience adrenaline.It was at the age of 13 and virtually: “I bought a yarranqué simulator. I could be there from ten in the morning until three in the morning. That was when my parents realized it and at that time, in November 2021, at the age of 14, I had my first official test in a karting and in February 2022 I had already started racing, at the age of 15. It went quite well and in the second year I was runner-up inIAME”, says the young man born on 11/9/2006.
Nano, as he is known, sought to prove himself in Europe and contacted José Manuel Balbiani, manager of Nicolás Varrone.“I debuted in the Formula Ultimate Cup. I did three races in 2024 and the entire championship in 2025,” he remembers.The jump was big since it is a category with “20 drivers and with cars that are used in the Regional Formula, the same car that Kimi Antonelli drove before jumping to Formula 2. It is a very powerful car, a Tatuus with a 270 horsepower turbo engine. We raced in Paul Ricard, Mugello, Magny-Cours, Aragón and Portimao. It was a strong move, because it is not a Formula 4, it is a superior, more powerful carand developed and is just below what Formula 3 would be.”He raced with the TS Corse team, winning four victories (two in Mugello, one in Aragon and the remaining one in Paul Ricard).
It is worth highlighting the leap that López made because, as he indicated, he went from karting directly to a single-wheeler with 270 horsepower and “with a lot of aerodynamic load and you have to understand it.”However, despite skipping Formula 4, he reveals that “the truth is that it didn’t feel unnatural to me, I was able to adapt quickly. I did several tests and worked a lot in the simulator and had many talks with Nico (Varrone).”The challenges continued since “when I jumped into the Audi GT3 (Gran Turismo 3), a car with a power of 580 horsepower, one is not used to having ABS or traction control and the number of buttons it has is crazy.”
At first he only traveled for the races and he says that “I was coming and going because there were six dates. But after the first race, which went very well, Audi called me to race the Italian GT3, for the Sprint championship. Then I started to have eighteen busy weekends.”
As happened to Varrone, he had to juggle the budgetary aspect and again Meteor appeared in his life.”It happened to us that with José (Balbiani), we often make this type of references: for example, what happened to us a little this year was that in the team in which I was racing all year it was only me and in the other teams there were four or five drivers and in addition they were all French in a French category. So, we said a little that we were like the ‘acrobatic team’ of the series.”
And the way was paved when Audi recruited him.”They decided to help me. It was such a great achievement to have won the championship to have a budget for next year. For being champion, the category gave me a prize of 100,000 euros, but destined only for what is called the Nova NP 2.0, which is a car very similar to an LMP3, which are Endurance races for two or three drivers, under the same Ultimate championship.”
The link with Audi continues and he confesses that “last year I raced for the official Audi team, but in Italy. There were talks because they loved me and so did some of the drivers. This is also a bit complicated because of the budget and although the car was fast, we had several mechanical problems, so we couldn’t finish many races and that also ended up compromising us.”The German brand has it in the pipeline for some other call in Endurance categories.
It has not yet closed its presence in Europe and is still working to raise the budget that will allow it to confirm the season.”The car is a GT3 (GranTurismo 3), it would be with a Le Mans prototype. The Nova NP 2.0 is six dates throughout Europe. We went through Paul Ricard, Magny-Cours, Spa-Francorchams, also in Spain, in Jerez. The idea is to also be able to do the Le Mans Cup and some other races at the Nürburgring. Those additional ones depend on the budget I can get.”
Regarding his references, he says that “first I have Varrone, who is now going to make the jump to Formula 2, so he is showing that that path is still open. Franco (Colapinto) also showed us that it can be achieved.”On the international level, he stays with Max Verstappen: “He is a driver who demonstrates everything that can be achieved by being one hundred percent focused on something. Not because he is one hundred percent focused on F1, which I mean in motorsport, but because he finishes a race there and he is in the simulator or he put a simulator on the plane to spend more time. He did a couple of races at the Nürburgring. So he is opening up a couple of interesting paths.”
Regarding his driving style, he describes “last year I was quite aggressive in the sense that I was able to solve the maneuvers without losing time. I had to be decisive, but also the second half of the year I showed that I was quite calculative when it came to the championship. One cannot take risks in the same way that one can normally do and I was able to control the risks quite a bit. I am a driver who is very interested in set-up and telemetry and I always try to have as much information as possible to apply in driving.”
The case of Nazareno López Cesarato demonstrates how a young driver can become a professional in Europe.He also broke the books with his 270 horsepower monoposto karting jump and with the added value of a title. Follow in the footsteps of Nicolás Varrone on the path of Endurance and show that there is life besides Formula 1.
