Colapinto asserts his authority to Alpine’s ‘questionable’ team orders

The Argentine driver overtook his teammate at turn 1 ‘disobeying’ team instructions under the pressure from Bortoleto’s Sauber

Photo: @ColapintoFiles (X)

Alpine and its season are proving to be forgettable, and further proof of this came at the Austin Grand Prix. The French team has the worst-performing car on the current grid and is not giving its drivers the opportunity to fight for anything beyond 17th place. It has been a very dull weekend, marked by a minor controversy created by the team itself. Alpine published their official version in a statement on social media, claiming that the reason for these orders was because they were ‘managing fuel with both cars’.

According to ESPN, the latests rumours around the paddock state that the order to hold positions would have been given by Briatore to test Franco. Alpine’s Team Principal wanted to see his reaction to this. Colapinto's disobedience seemingly brought a smile to Flavio's face.

If you take time to reflect about it, it would’nt be so surprising coming from Briatore. In fact, it’s a good test to evaluate your own driver.

Photo: Alpine F1 Team (Instagram)

After the race, Franco Colapinto spoke to the Spanish-speaking media, including DAZN Spain: ‘I think it was the right thing to do. I had to give up the position several times and he (Gasly) was about a second slower. I was under pressure from Bortoleto and overtaking was a way to defend myself.’ His facial expression showed clear fatigue from a controversy that made no sense when you are fighting for such a low position. Team orders in these circumstances have no reason to exist.

The race placed Alpine and its drivers in the positions that matched their real performance. After the start, both drivers were in 14th and 17th place. Apart from Franco overtaking Ocon, who started on hard tires, there were no other notable actions from either of them. Instead, they simply followed a slow pace that led them to the back of the field. Both drivers used a one-stop strategy, though Colapinto had a small advantage. The French driver, Pierre Gasly, made his first and only stop on lap 28, which was not a good one. However, the Argentine driver decided to extend his first stint by five more laps to preserve and have fresher tires at the end of the race.

By lap 45, after losing the position with Alexander Albon and opening up an 8-second gap between them both, Pierre Gasly was losing an amount of time, there was no pace out there. So there it was when the controversy was warming up somehow.

The French driver spent a couple of laps defending from Isack Hadjar overtake attempts, until losing this fight by lap 51. Franco Colapinto’s pace was way better than his teammate’s, so he tapped into it and reached DRS zone two laps later. So did Bortoleto with Franco’s rear wing.

Out of nowhere, there was the moment that left us speechlees. Alpine asking Colapinto to hold positions even though the pace gap between their drivers was more than remarkable. After a couple of attemps from Franco, one of them was actually slowed down by team orders in order to ‘lift and coast’ at turn 12.

‘Wait what? Hold positions? But he’s slow!’ A reaction everyone related to so it was nonsense by doing that under those conditions. No points at stake. Alpine was in the middle of nowhere. It was the point when Franco reminded us why he deserves to continue his journey in F1, delivering an amazing overtake into turn 1 over his teammate. A movement that might no be considered as a huge one, but the background makes it more important that you might think. Colapinto was brave and launched an agressive overtake ‘showing off’ authority and a strong mindset. The key to be a great driver and experience a long career in Formula 1.

Photo: ESPN F1 (X)

Colapinto’s future is still unknown, even though the last reports confirm his contract extension with the team should be announced by Mexico or Brazil. He deserves it. There is no debate. He is not just performing well, but also beating his teammate in qualifying and race pace lately.

Franco is still young, with a huge improvement gap. I really trust in him for upcoming seasons. He will reach a good status in Formula 1, but his future needs to be secured first. In Spain, we are more than delighted to count with more Spanish-speaker in the grid. And when it comes to a great talent as him, even more so.