Franco Colapinto ignores team orders at the Formula 1 race in Austin and overtakes Pierre Gasly: Alpine expresses disappointment and announces internal investigation
After the US Grand Prix in Austin, the Alpine team expressed disappointment with Formula 1 driver Franco Colapinto, who ignored team orders and overtook teammate Pierre Gasly despite clear instructions.
Towards the end of the race, Gasly and Colapinto were in 17th and 18th place. Gasly had already made his only pit stop on lap 27: earlier than planned to protect himself against an undercut. This meant that the Frenchman had to complete the rest of the 56-lap race on soft tires, which led to a significant loss of pace.
Colapinto stopped five laps later and was faster with his fresher tires. The Argentine pushed for a position change as he was also under pressure from Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto. However, Alpine decided to instruct both drivers to hold their positions as the team needed to save fuel and was about to be lapped.
How Colapinto justifies his behavior
Colapinto responded with, “What?! Hold position?! But he’s slow,” and then ignored the order. On the penultimate lap, Colapinto overtook Gasly at Turn 1 with a determined maneuver, leaving the Frenchman just enough room to avoid sliding off the track.
Colapinto defended his actions after the race: “At the end, I had slightly fresher tires than Pierre and saw that Gabriel [Bortoleto] was attacking. I wanted to keep him behind us both.”
However, Alpine’s team management assessed the situation differently. Managing Director Steve Nielsen expressed his dissatisfaction with the incident in the official team statement. “On Pierre’s side, we reacted to the danger of an undercut and brought him into the pits on softs a little earlier than planned. On top of that, we had a slow pit stop, which we will review and fix,” Nielsen explained.
Why the command center insisted on team orders
“Franco was able to drive his stint on medium tires longer and thus had a tire advantage towards the end of the race, which allowed him to catch up with Pierre. We instructed both drivers to hold their positions because we had to manage the fuel in both cars and the leaders were in close proximity.”
“As a team, every instruction from the pit wall is final, and we are disappointed that this was not followed today. We will review and clarify the matter internally,” said Nielsen. Colapinto finished the race in 17th place, while Gasly was overtaken by Bortoleto.
