Franco Colapinto’s late-race team orders rebellion will be subject to an internal review, Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen has confirmed. The Argentine racer overtook team-mate Pierre Gasly in the closing laps of the United States Grand Prix, despite being told to hold position.
Colapinto and Gasly were struggling down in 17th and 18th place respectively with Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto right behind them on fresher tyres. With fuel concerns hanging over both cars, Alpine told their drivers to hold position during the final few laps.
The Pilar-born racer ignored this directive, though, and after complaining about his team-mate being “slow” on the radio, Colapinto made a lunge to overtake Gasly at Turn One with three laps remaining. He pulled off the move, but his Alpine team were not impressed with the manoeuvre, which went against team orders.
“Today, like a lot of teams, we had to adapt our strategy based on the conditions and what we saw on track with the hard tyre not looking to be a favourable race tyre,” Nielsen explained in a team statement post-race.
“We gave the instruction for the drivers to maintain position as we were managing fuel with both cars and the added variable of the number of laps remaining with the leaders in close proximity. As a team, any instruction made by the pit wall is final and today we are disappointed that this didn’t happen, so it’s something we will review and deal with internally.”
This review will likely lead to a ticking off for Colapinto, who is fighting tooth and nail to secure his F1 future with just five races remaining in the 2025 campaign. The 22-year-old is at risk of being replaced by Paul Aron after failing to score a point since ousting Jack Doohan from Alpine’s second seat earlier this season.
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Explaining the decision to overtake Gasly, Colapinto said: “We had quite a bit more pace than Pierre in the last stint, and had Bortoleto really close behind, attacking very hard. He was much quicker than us and it was holding me up with how slow Pierre was going. I think it was the best for the situation to have me in front.”
Colapinto continued: “I am motivated. We know that the car is tough to drive and it’s very difficult at the moment. We swapped positions a lot of times this year and they also let us race in other tracks.
“Here for this event, I was attacked very heavily by Bortoleto. It was probably the best to have me in front, otherwise we were going to get both overtaken.”
