Franco Colapinto defied team orders to stay behind his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly during their battle for 17th place in the F1 US GP. However, Alpine Managing Director Steve Nielsen criticised Colapinto’s decision, saying Colapinto’s actions “disappointed” the team when he ignored instructions.
Alpine fighting at the back of the field
During Sunday’s F1 US GP at the Circuit of the Americas, Colapinto and Gasly battled for 17th place, ultimately ignoring team orders.
Gasly, who started on medium tyres, switched to softs on lap 27 to defend against an undercut. His final stint to lap 56 proved long and demanding, as tyre wear became a major factor. Colapinto, meanwhile, pitted five laps later, giving him fresher soft tyres and stronger pace in the closing laps.
As the Argentine driver closed in, Alpine instructed him to stay behind Gasly. Both cars were saving fuel at this point of the race, uncertain as to whether race leader Max Verstappen was going to overtake the back markers, which has been the case for the previous three races, or finish the full race distance.
However, Colapinto defied the call, overtaking his teammate into Turn 1 on the penultimate lap, leaving Gasly minimal room to stay on track, but just enough to avoid contact.
Speaking after the F1 US GP, Colapinto stated he knew that they had to continue to keep working as a team. He believed that the overtake on Gasly was the right move to avoid Bortoleto attacking the pair.
“Of course, we need to keep working as a team, it was a tough day. I think we just had quite a bit more pace than Pierre in the last stint. We had Bortoleto really close behind, attacking very hard.
“He was much quicker than us and I just couldn’t really hold him with how slow Pierre was going. I think it was the best for the situation to have him in front and try not to get both cars behind.”
Bortoleto closing in
With the second seat in Alpines camp still un-confirmed, Colapinto is seeking to cement his position for the 2026 season with the team. For the 2025 season, Gasly has secured all of Alpine’s 20 points. The team currently sit at the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship.
When asked about his motivations for the move, and whether he was trying to prove himself after a tough weekend, he replied;
“I am motivated. We know the car is tough to drive, and it’s very difficult at the moment.“
He added that there have been other occasions where they allowed the pair to race. However, he added that, in this situation, staying ahead of Gasly was the best approach.
“We saw positions a lot of times this year and they also let us race in other tracks. I think here, for the situation we were in, 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. We just need to analyse and come with all the data and analysing every moment of the race. We will come back stronger for Mexico.”
Alpines Managing Director’s thoughts
Steve Nielsen, Alpine’s Managing Director, disagreed with Colapinto’s decision during the F1 US GP. He expressed his disappointment in the team’s official press release.
Nielsen emphasised that all instructions from the pit wall are final and confirmed that the team would review Colapinto’s controversial overtake internally.
“On Pierre’s side, we covered an undercut threat to box onto softs, a little earlier than we wanted, and then had a slow pitstop, which we will review and rectify,” Nielsen explained. “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.”
