Ranked: The top 10 Argentinian F1 drivers

At Imola this weekend, Franco Colapinto will return to the Formula 1 grid. He became the 26th driver from Argentina to take part in a world championship F1 grand prix when he made his surprise Williams debut last year, and the first since Gaston Mazzacane ended his stint with Prost at the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix.

Given that a significant chunk of those 26 drivers came in the early days of the world championship, when Argentina had a thriving domestic racing scene and one-off appearances in one's home grand prix required little more than owning a relevant car and paying the entry fee, Colapinto's exploits during his Williams stint means that before he's even driven in anger for Alpine he's already comfortably a top 10 contender.

But where does he rank exactly among the Argentinian greats, and could there be a surprise number one? Spoiler alert: no there isn't.

Before we rank the top 10, let's pay some lip service to the 16 racers who failed to make the cut.

Between 1952 and 1960 Alberto Crespo, Adolfo Schwelm Cruz, Jesus Iglesias, Roberto Bonomi and Alberto Rodriguez Larreta all made a single F1 appearance at their home grand prix. None of them did anything of real note, and it's hard to imagine their names ever appearing on The Race again.

Alfredo Pian entered the 1950 Monaco GP, but sadly sustained career-ending leg injuries in a qualifying accident, while Juan Manuel Bordeu was entered in the 1961 French GP, although the car was actually raced by Lucian Bianchi (great uncle of Jules).

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Pablo Birger had a couple of cracks at his home grand prix. Jorge Daponte tried, and failed, to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 in its F1-points-counting era before making a couple of actual F1 starts (at home and at Monza), Nasif Moises Estefano made two appearances, including one for Alejandro de Tomaso, who also made two F1 starts as well as entering various cars over the years, including those run by Frank Williams in 1970.

Miguel Angel Guerra (pictured below) failed to qualify for three races at the start of the 1981 season for Osella, before finally making the grid in San Marino, getting injured on the first lap and then promptly disappeared from F1.

Clemar Bucci ran a handful of races in 1954-55, but more notably designed the Dogo SS-2000 prototype sportscar. It looks like a cross between the Pink Panther's car and a DeLorean. Bizarre.

...Bucci's first project was the Dogo SS-2000 of 1970, a gullwing-doored one-off using a 2-litre Peugeot engine for 160hp.

Supposedly it inspired one Horacio Pagani and the two remained good friends, hence the Special's Pagani connection.