Franco Colapinto has confirmed he sat down with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to hash out the fallout from his Dutch Grand Prix penalty, and the strange thing is how calm he sounds about the whole affair now. No fireworks, no fresh grievance, just a driver who still thinks he was hard done by but has clearly decided that shouting about it into September wasn’t going to change a stewards’ decision made in August.
The backstory barely needs repeating. Colapinto and Arvid Lindblad were both handed drive-throughs for overtaking under yellow flags in the chaos following Max Verstappen‘s first-lap crash at Zandvoort, a decision that triggered furious pushback from Colapinto’s camp and a since-deleted broadside from a sponsor executive accusing the stewards of “killing the integrity of F1”.
A Chance Meeting in Buenos Aires
The conversation with Ben Sulayem did not happen in some formal FIA hearing room. It happened because the FIA president was in Argentina, throwing his support behind the push to revive the Argentine Grand Prix, and Colapinto was there too.
“We talked with Mohammed, we talked two days ago. He was in Argentina, so it was great to see him when he went there. The president of Argentina was there, the president of FIA, it was amazing to see all of them there and the interest that FIA has and Formula 1.” – Franco Colapinto
Speaking to media at Monza ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, as reported by Crash.net, Colapinto made clear the Argentina trip meant more to him than the penalty row itself. He talked up the significance of having both the Argentine president and the FIA president in the same room, pushing for a race that has been off the calendar and that Argentina’s leadership clearly wants back.
“I think it’s great that they understand and see the value of Argentina being back in the calendar and it being a race, and being back on the schedule would be amazing. Very grateful for them making the time to go there and having that meeting. It’s great for the country and for the sport as well, for the future, hopefully.” – Franco Colapinto
Still Disagrees, Just Not Losing Sleep Over It
Here is where it gets interesting. Colapinto has not suddenly decided the stewards got it right. He has not been talked round by a friendly chat with the man who runs the governing body. But he has landed on a position that sounds a lot like acceptance dressed up as diplomacy.
“I think about the penalty, it’s already in the past. We can also read the rule and it’s the stewards, they do their job and they follow the rulebook. Personally, I still have the same view, so it hasn’t changed since Zandvoort.” – Franco Colapinto
That is about as honest an admission as you will get from a driver in this sport: the rule technically supports the penalty, he still thinks it was the wrong call, and he is not going to pretend otherwise just because he had a nice chat in Buenos Aires. It is a more measured tone than the one struck by his sponsor’s since-deleted social media outburst, and Colapinto seems keen to put daylight between his own view and that episode.
“Probably we’ll see some of the stewards. They always, I think, just want to talk. But I also understand their point. If you read the rulebook, the penalty is right. Personally I don’t agree with it, but again, it’s part of the game and we are not stewards. But the focus is here in Monza and trying to do our best.” – Franco Colapinto
Why This Matters More Than It Looks
Ben Sulayem’s willingness to meet with an Argentine driver in person and hear him out is a small but telling gesture, particularly given the wider storm the Zandvoort penalties kicked up, from accusations of anti-British bias among the stewards to the FIA threatening legal action over “targeted online abuse”. Colapinto’s account strips all of that noise away and leaves just two men having a fairly ordinary conversation about a decision neither of them is going to reverse.
It also fits a pattern building around this Alpine seat. Colapinto has spent much of the season fighting for relevance in a car that Alpine has struggled to make competitive, and dragging out a penalty row would have done nothing for him beyond generating headlines. Instead he has chosen the quieter path: register the disagreement, acknowledge the rulebook technically backs the stewards, then move on to Monza, where actual points are up for grabs rather than moral victories.
The Bigger Picture Nobody’s Solving Soon
None of this actually resolves the underlying tension. Drivers will keep feeling stewarding decisions are inconsistent, and the FIA will keep insisting the rulebook was followed to the letter, and both things can be true at once because motorsport stewarding has never been an exact science played out in real time at 300 km/h. Ben Sulayem meeting with Colapinto in person is a nice piece of relationship management, but it changes nothing about how the next yellow-flag overtake gets judged.
What it does show is that Colapinto, for all the drama swirling around him this year, from grid politics to sponsor meltdowns, is choosing his battles. He is not fighting the FIA over Zandvoort anymore. He is fighting for lap time at Monza, which is the only argument that actually moves him up the standings.
