Franco Colapinto has responded to Jeremy Clarkson’s comment that he would give the Alpine Formula 1 driver a grid penalty for being Argentinian.
Clarkson was a guest of Alpine’s at the United States Grand Prix and gave an interview to Sky Sports F1 on Saturday, in which he joked: “Franco’s got a grid penalty for being Argentinian. Probably. Well, I’d give him one for that. But anyway, that’s just because of what happened when we went there.”
Clarkson was referring to Colapinto’s actual grid penalty for exceeding his power unit parts quota and, most likely, to his Top Gear show’s 2014 Patagonia special. At the time, tensions emerged due to a contentious license plate that Argentinian protesters interpreted as a reference to the Falklands War, cutting the filming short.
Alpine soon issued a statement in response to Clarkson’s comment: “We at Alpine are aware of the comments made by a team guest in a recent television interview in Austin. Franco is our driver and has our full support.”
Twenty-four hours later, the issue was brought up to Colapinto himself in the post-race media pen.
“Of course, it's nothing to do with the team,” he said. “He did an interview on his own, it's nothing related to the team. I think he's always been kind of joking, I don't really know him, but they told me.
“I didn't see too much of what he said, but I heard that Jamie [Campbell-Walter, Colapinto’s manager] put something on social media.
“I guess, just try to focus on ourselves. I try to improve the situation of course, it kind of needs help from a lot of people, not just from me. We'll see how we end up, but yeah, not the best, I guess.”
Sideboard and floor broken by Lindblad collision
Franco Colapinto, Alpine, Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Logan Riely / Getty Images
Colapinto’s Austin race was curtailed by a collision with Arvid Lindblad in Turn 1 on lap 25, with the Racing Bulls going around the outside for 14th position. Lindblad’s left-hand sidepod and Colapinto’s front-right corner touched, sending the Alpine into a spin – and, later on, into retirement.
“Pierre [Gasly] was out of the pits, I was trying to keep Arvid behind, so Pierre could be ahead,” Colapinto recounted. “We were the three of us side by side and I got sandwiched, so I got totally damaged. But it's part of racing.
“The whole sideboard and floor was broken. A pity.
“I started from the back and then it really didn't work from the start. I chose to do it on the hard to see if we could do something interesting, but we couldn't.
“I'm looking forward to Mexico, to turn this around and not do the penalties and go back to finishing races.”
Colapinto has retired from three of the last four grands prix, having caused the Baku pile-up and suffered a suspected driveline issue in Singapore. That was as many retirements as in the rest of his F1 career.
The Alpine driver did describe his race pace as “very strong” over the weekend and is therefore hoping for decent results in the upcoming Latin American races in Mexico and Brazil.
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