‘We will review and deal with it internally’ – Alpine ‘disappointed’ after Colapinto defied team orders in US GP

Alpine Managing Director Steve Nielsen expressed his and the team's disappointment after Franco Colapinto ignored a direct instruction to hold position behind team mate Pierre Gasly in the closing stages of the United States Grand Prix.

As Sunday's race neared its conclusion, Colapinto was lapping in 18th place when he closed to the gearbox of Gasly’s Alpine ahead of him. Despite being on five-lap fresher tyres than Gasly, and with Gabriel Bortoleto chasing, Colapinto was instructed to remain behind the Frenchman and hold position, to which he replied: "Wait, what? Hold positions? But he’s slow.”

Taking matters into his own hands, the Argentinian dove to the inside at Turn 1 on the penultimate tour with an aggressive but clean lunge. As a result, he finished in 17th place, while Gasly dropped behind Bortoleto, to finish as the last runner.

“On Pierre's side, we covered an undercut threat to box onto softs, a little earlier than we wanted, and then had a slow pit stop, which we will review and rectify,” said Nielsen.

“Franco was able to extend his medium run to have a tyre delta towards the end of the race where he caught up to Pierre. 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.”

Speaking briefly on the incident after the Grand Prix, Colapinto defended his actions, saying: “I had Bortoleto really close behind.

"I was defending really hard and Pierre was very slow – he had older tyres or some kind of issue. I overtook him. I was very close, and I think it was the best for the situation.”

Gasly added: “I was a bit surprised, yeah, but I’m not going to put it there. I think ultimately, we were just too slow and on the soft tyres, I spent my life fighting and ran out of life pretty early on.”

Nielsen commented that Alpine have “a lot to review across the board from this weekend,” as the team’s difficult season continued in Austin. With the Mexico City Grand Prix coming up in just a few days, there is minimal time to apply any lessons for the next leg of the World Championship.