{"id":37676,"date":"2025-10-20T04:39:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T08:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=37676"},"modified":"2025-10-20T04:39:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T08:39:03","slug":"alpine-will-deal-with-colapinto-decision-to-ignore-team-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/10\/20\/alpine-will-deal-with-colapinto-decision-to-ignore-team-orders\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpine will “deal with” Colapinto decision to ignore team orders"},"content":{"rendered":"

The American GP was mostly an uneventful race for Alpine, who again lacked the pace to fight for points. Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly<\/a> were fighting at the very back of the field, with a top 10 finish entirely out of the question.<\/p>\n

Because of this, it is something of a surprise that Alpine find themselves in another driver controversy.<\/p>\n

The Enstone team decided to issue team orders in the final laps of the race, instructing Colapinto to stay behind teammate Gasly. Colapinto’s immediate decision was one of confusion, arguing that he was being held up by the Frenchman.<\/p>\n

With Sauber’s Bortoleto<\/a> running close behind, the Argentine decided to ignore team orders and overtake Gasly. This move allowed him to finish 17th and ahead of his Brazilian rival.<\/p>\n

However, Alpine have moved swiftly to express their disapproval of the Argentine’s actions.<\/p>\n

\"\"
AUSTIN, TEXAS – OCTOBER 19: Franco Colapinto of Argentina driving the (43) Alpine F1 A525 Renault on track during the F1 Grand Prix of United States at Circuit of The Americas on October 19, 2025 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alpine will “deal with” Colapinto’s actions in COTA<\/h2>\n

Not for the first time in recent years, Alpine are in an awkward place with their drivers. Colapinto is yet to secure a new contract with the team, adding an extra level of importance to his performances.<\/p>\n

Gasly, meanwhile, agreed a multi-year extension after the summer break. This puts the Grand Prix winner in a comfortable position as the final rounds of the year unravel.<\/p>\n

Of course, Colapinto is still expected to continue with the French outfit<\/a> in 2026. Although Alpine are not completely bereft of alternatives, none of them are obvious front-runners for a full-time seat.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the 22-year-old has regularly matched and even outperformed teammate Pierre Gasly on race day. Considering the difference in experience between the two drivers, this is a noteworthy achievement.<\/p>\n

Whilst Gasly has a small edge over Colapinto in qualifying trim, this relatively small deficit – once again – reflects more favourably on the driver who was thrown into the seat mid-season.<\/p>\n

Focusing on the US GP, Alpine wanted their drivers to hold position in the final laps – not deeming the Bortoleto<\/a> threat as sufficient for Colapinto and Gasly to fight for position.<\/p>\n

In Colapinto’s eyes, this left him vulnerable in the final laps – particularly since his teammate was holding him up. From the team’s perspective, however, the #43 car should not have overtaken the #10.<\/p>\n

Team principal Steve Nielsen made some very direct declarations post-race:<\/p>\n

“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.<\/em><\/p>\n

“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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A preventable controversy<\/h4>\n

In a race with more action further up the field, the action between Alpine’s duo might have been completely unnoticed in the main feed. It is very rare for any real stories to develop from drivers fighting for 17th place.<\/p>\n

Then again, it is Alpine themselves who have pointed a spotlight at this incident. By issuing a statement post-race that directly places the blame on Colapinto, they have created negative sentiment towards themselves.<\/p>\n

Such altercations between teammates, especially over such lowly positions, should be assessed internally. Placing the blame on one driver so quickly will do little to help a team whose reputation for driver management is already a poor one.<\/p>\n

For Colapinto, his performance relative to Gasly<\/a> is still a net positive. It would be a stretch to assume his overtake will jeaporside his chances for 2026.<\/p>\n

At the same time, yesterday introduced another preventable and unwanted saga to team Enstone’s driver situation.<\/p>\n

Main photo: Photo by Sam Bloxham\/LAT Images (Alpine media gallery)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American GP was mostly an uneventful race for Alpine, who again lacked the pace to fight for points. Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly were fighting at the very back of the field, with a top 10 finish entirely out of the question. Because of this, it is something of a surprise that Alpine find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":37677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2575,2452,1818],"class_list":["post-37676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-alpine-f1-team","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-franco-colapinto"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37676"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37681,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37676\/revisions\/37681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}