An F1 specialist criticized Alpine's strategy: 'They already do it on purpose.'

Franco Colapinto had a bittersweet weekend at the Zandvoort GP. Although he achieved his best result of the season so far, eleventh place, the Argentine  suffered from Alpine's poor decisions, which prevented him from scoring his first points of the year. In this regard, Fabio Fiamingo, a specialist in Formula 1, questioned the French team's strategy and highlighted its main mistakes.

In a conversation for the Vorterix streaming, Fiamingo pointed out that the first major mistake occurred on lap 53, when Colapinto entered the pits during the safety car. "What is incomprehensible about Alpine's team is that when they bring Franco in to change tires on lap 53, they put on medium tires. He did the first part of the race with a full tank with 100 kilograms (220 pounds) perfectly, there were 19 left with the safety car, 15 laps remained, they put on medium tires (everyone who changed wheels was going out on softs)", he said harshly, and added that "that already seems to me like they're doing it on purpose".

After Norris's retirement, Colapinto switched to soft tires on lap 65, something that for Fiamingo came too late (there were only 7 laps left).

However, the worst would come later with the team's and Gasly's terrible decision not to let the Buenos Aires native pass to fight for points in the final stretch of the race. The specialist explained that Esteban Ocon overtook Hulkenberg and the Frenchman easily, but when it was time to overtake Colapinto, he lost decisive time: "He spent a lap, he lost a whole lap, he couldn't get past and Ocon had pulled away by two and a half seconds. When there was only one lap left, he made up those two and a half seconds".

Fiamingo maintained that Alpine's management prevented Colapinto from fighting for a more respectable result. "They could have scored one or two points, because he was the only one, among those fighting, with new soft tires, who would have overtaken (Ocon). I saw him very angry after the race", he assured.

His opinion on the next race in Monza

Looking ahead, he anticipated that the next event in Monza raises some expectations, since Colapinto made his debut in the category there, although he clarified that  the team's limitations are evident: "Alpine's car is no longer competitive. He's going to Monza and they need an engine. They're going to drag him, they're going to pass him. It has no engine and surely he won't be able to do much".

Finally, Fiamingo emphasized that the situation is already unsustainable on a technical level: "Alpine's engine has not been competitive for a long time and that's why next year they're not developing the engines and next year they're going to race with Mercedes engines".