‘Instructions by the team must always be followed’ admits Colapinto after Gasly incident at COTA

Alpine racer Franco Colapinto has admitted that “instructions… must always be followed” after his controversial pass on team mate Pierre Gasly at the United States Grand Prix.

In the latter stages of last weekend’s race in Austin, Colapinto was instructed to hold station behind 17th-placed Gasly after being told by the Alpine pit wall that both cars were managing their pace.

However, declaring Gasly to be “slow”, Colapinto took matters into his own hands and made a robust pass on Gasly into Turn 1 on the final lap of the race, with the Frenchman subsequently passed by the Kick Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto.

Colapinto’s actions earned a swift rebuke from Alpine Managing Director Steve Nielsen, who said in the aftermath of the race: "As a team, any instruction made by the pit wall is final and today we are disappointed that this didn't happen.”

Building into this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, Colapinto appeared to show contrition for his actions, saying: “The team situation on Sunday has been discussed internally and it is clear that instructions by the team must always be followed no matter what.

“We are all together, and we are all working towards the same goal to keep getting better with each session and each race weekend.

“It was a challenging weekend in Austin where I struggled a lot with the car,” he added. “Having just one practice session, the tricky conditions and not being able to find the right balance all played into a tough weekend on my side.

“We need to understand more closely why we struggled so much with the car and work to fix this going forward, even if we know we're in for a difficult end to the year with the package we have.”

Colapinto’s actions in Austin came at a time when his future in the team appears to hang in the balance, with Alpine Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore telling the media that his choice was between Colapinto and test and reserve driver Paul Aron for the seat in 2026.

That makes Aron’s Free Practice 1 outing at this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix all the more intriguing, therefore, with Aron – who will share the track with Colapinto after taking over Gasly’s car – saying: “I'm looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of the A525 for my latest Free Practice 1 session with the team.

“I enjoyed the experience in Monza a lot and found it incredibly useful for my own personal development as a driver and my understanding of the car. I'm ready to build on that this weekend in Mexico City in Pierre's car.

“I'm very grateful to the team for granting me this further opportunity and will do whatever is needed to help them set up a competitive weekend.”