Franco Colapinto’s controversial decision in the United States GP

The Argentine disobeyed Alpine’s direct order and overtook Pierre Gasly on the penultimate lap of the Texas race.

In the final laps of the United States GP, Franco Colapinto’s best moment coincided with Pierre Gasly’s worst. In the context of Alpine, fighting at the bottom, the Argentine had found an unthinkable window of performance with the soft tires and with his car already empty of fuel. It was the only moment in the entire Texas weekend when the ex-Williams felt even a little more comfortable with his weak A525. With better lap times, Colapinto clearly approached the Frenchman and everything was in place to surpass him. Furthermore, car 43 had been under pressure for several laps from Gabriel Bortoleto’s Sauber.

Suddenly, Colapinto’s race engineer sent him a radio message: “Friend, we need you to maintain position.” The Argentine’s response was clear: “What! It’s going much slower”. The order was not modified: Franco did not have to pass Gasly.

However, The Argentine did not pay attention to the order and went on his partner. He went with DRS in the first corner, put his A525 on the inside and in the middle part of the corner he took the Frenchman off the track (something common in those maneuvers in the first Austin variant). Gasly went wide to avoid the touch and Colapinto advanced one position on the penultimate lap. The Frenchman would lose one more place to Bortoleto in the final and was last on the track.

Consulted by AM850 Regarding his disobedience, Colapinto was clear: “I think it was the right thing to do, it was my turn to give the position several times and I was actually going much faster. Pierre had older tires, he was 1s5 slower and it was the best for that moment because Bortoleto was faster. It was 17th and 18th place, there is no point in fighting for these things”said.

Regarding the race, Colapinto explained: “I struggled with everything. It was very hard with the medium rubber. Every time a car passed me I lost a lot of power, the tires overheated. When I changed the tires and put soft ones it was a little better, suddenly the car is like it was a little more alive again, tI had the pace of Hadjar’s Racing Bulls in front, I was faster than Pierre, so I found the rhythm a little more and was a little more comfortable with the car. It was a day to learn. I think that as a team we had a hard time this weekend, with the heat and the potholes, so let’s work for Mexico. Hopefully it will be a little better weekend.”