{"id":102460,"date":"2025-10-26T20:52:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T20:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/102460\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T20:52:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T20:52:06","slug":"juan-pablo-montoya-says-winless-f1-driver-acted-like-he-was-max-verstappen-by-ignoring-team-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/102460\/","title":{"rendered":"Juan Pablo Montoya says winless F1 driver acted like he was Max Verstappen by ignoring team orders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen has long been established as the number one driver at Red Bull. Ever since Daniel Ricciardo left the team, his partners have been relegated to a support role.<\/p>\n

Thus, it\u2019s extremely rare for Verstappen<\/a> to face team orders. There was one notable occasion, after he\u2019d sealed the title, at the 2022 Sao Paulo GP.<\/p>\n

A struggling Verstappen was told to let Sergio Perez through<\/a>, but he refused. He saw this as payback for a qualifying incident in Monaco.<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton says McLaren have to be \u2018cut-throat\u2019 to beat Verstappen<\/a>, but he himself has shown a greater willingness to prioritise the team\u2019s interests. He has swapped positions with Charles Leclerc on multiple occasions this season, though he did slow down too late in Azerbaijan to relinquish P8 to his Ferrari teammate.<\/p>\n

Juan Pablo Montoya understands Franco Colapinto disobeying team orders but warns of consequences<\/p>\n

According to Juan Pablo Montoya<\/a>, only a driver of the stature of Verstappen or Hamilton can ignore team orders and get away with it. That\u2019s why he was surprised to see Franco Colapinto<\/a> do so in the United States.<\/p>\n

Colapinto was told to hold P18 behind Pierre Gasly<\/a>, but after expressing dismay on the radio, he overtook him anyway. In a statement that was later removed from Alpine\u2019s social media channels, managing director Steve Nielsen said he was \u2018disappointed\u2019 that a clear instruction hadn\u2019t been followed.<\/p>\n

Speaking to AS Colombia, Montoya said Alpine\u2019s order seemed \u2018crazy\u2019 given that Colapinto was on fresher tyres and the stakes were so low. But perhaps the Argentine, who hasn\u2019t scored a point this year, should have been more attentive to the potential consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s see, I\u2019ll give you both sides of the coin and let people think what they want,\u201d Montoya said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to get involved in controversy.<\/p>\n

\"FrancoPhoto by Bryn Lennon \u2013 Formula 1\/Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, I\u2019m going to defend it, because he was coming faster, the team is crazy, what are they playing at? Why are they giving him a team order at this point? What do they need? Honestly, unnecessary. He wasn\u2019t going to affect the result.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy? If Franco is on a different strategy with fresher tyres, why are they doing that? They\u2019re way out of line. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn the other hand, and I can also add to that, well done to Franco for standing up for himself and deciding, \u2018I don\u2019t care, I\u2019m not going to let myself be pushed around, right?\u2019 That\u2019s what you\u2019d think from those moves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other side is that Franco is not world champion at the moment. Franco is not Lewis Hamilton at the moment, he is not Max Verstappen to be able to come and not follow team orders. <\/p>\n

\u201cTeam orders have their reason and you have to follow them, whether you like it or not. And not following team orders has consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alpine have finally made a decision about Franco Colapinto\u2019s future<\/p>\n

The latest reports suggest Colapinto was given a \u2018dressing down\u2019 by Alpine<\/a> afterwards. Nielsen had promised an internal \u2018review\u2019.<\/p>\n

But it seems that this hasn\u2019t had a bearing on his future. In fact, Alpine have told Colapinto they will keep him<\/a> for 2026.<\/p>\n

The battle for the seat alongside Gasly had come down to Colapinto and reserve driver Paul Aron, who appeared in FP1 on Friday.<\/p>\n

Flavio Briatore looked exasperated with Colapinto as he qualified last in Mexico, but that shouldn\u2019t be seen as anything more than instinctive frustration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Max Verstappen has long been established as the number one driver at Red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[25629,68546,74803,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-102460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alpine","tag-franco-colapinto","tag-juan-pablo-montoya","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}