Alpine managing director Steven Nielsen says the team is “disappointed” in Franco Colapinto after he ignored a team order to not overtake Pierre Gasly late in the United States Grand Prix.
The two Alpine drivers were coming under pressure from Gabriel Bortoleto in the closing stages of the race – with the trio fighting over 17th place – when the team told Colapinto to hold position behind Gasly. Colapinto questioned the call at the time and duly overtook his teammate into Turn 1, with Gasly soon dropping behind the Sauber to finish last on the road.
“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,” Nielsen said. “Franco was able to extend his medium run to have a tire 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.”
Colapinto defended his decision to overtake Gasly, saying he thought both cars would be overtaken without his move.
“I think it was just a tough day for both of us, a tough weekend in general,” Colapinto said. “We struggled, I think some things learned after a tough weekend, hopefully we can be stronger in Mexico.
“But of course we need to keep working as a team, it was a tough day. I think I had a bit more pace than Pierre in the last stint, and had Bortoleto really close behind, attacking very hard, and he was much quicker than us, and I just couldn’t really hold him behind with how slow Pierre was going, so I think it was the best for the situation to have me in front and try not to get both cars behind Gabby.
“I am motivated, we know that the car is tough to drive and it’s very difficult at the moment. We swapped positions a lot of times this year, and they also let us race in other tracks. I think here, for the situation I was in, and 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 analyze and come with all the data and analyzing every moment of the race, but we will come back stronger for Mexico.
“I don’t know [if the call was a surprise]. I think we are trying really hard to be strong for next year, and we are analyzing every situation and trying to get better at those. It’s these moments that are so very important in a weekend, even though it’s not for points, we are trying to make the best call possible every time.”