Alpine F1 team defends Colapinto after Clarkson comments

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct 24 - The Alpine Formula One team issued a statement in support of driver Franco Colapinto on Saturday after TV celebrity Jeremy Clarkson joked that he would give him a grid penalty just for being Argentine.

Clarkson, famed for presenting British motoring programmes "Top Gear" and Amazon's "The Grand Tour" as well as the farming hit "Clarkson's Farm," made his comments in an interview with Sky Sports television ahead of the US Grand Prix.

Colapinto has a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday's race at the Circuit of the Americas as a result of power unit component changes.

"Franco's got a grid penalty for being Argentinian," said Clarkson, a guest of Alpine in Austin. "Probably. Well, I'd give him one for that.

"That's just because of what happened when we went there," he added.

Clarkson went to Argentina's Patagonia with Top Gear in 2014 in a controversial episode that triggered protests after he drove a car with a registration number that some saw as a reference to the 1982 war over the Falkland Islands that Argentina claims sovereignty over and knows as Las Malvinas.

"We're aware of the comments made in a recent TV interview from a guest of the team in Austin," Renault-owned Alpine said, without mentioning Clarkson.

"We would like to reiterate that these are personal views and do not align with the team's values of promoting kindness and respect. Franco is our driver and has our full support."

Colapinto has a legion of Argentine fans and has had to repeatedly issue statements calling for restraint after rivals and even his own teammates received online abuse.

The Argentine said in Austin earlier in the week that the bad comments had "crossed a few lines lately" and said his mechanics and engineers had been targeted by some supporters seeking blame for race incidents.

"My mechanics got a lot of hate, my engineer, people from my team that want me to do well and help me perform," he said. "And I'm working with daily getting these kind of messages."

Colapinto's manager Jamie Campbell-Walter posted on X that "Jeremy Clarkson’s comments about Franco’s nationality were completely unacceptable. There is no place for remarks like this in Formula One, regardless of who makes them or whether they are intended as a joke.

"We have worked hard to promote respect and put an end to hostility and abuse. That respect must go both ways. We cannot ask anyone to behave responsibly while accepting comments like these from prominent figures visiting our sport." REUTERS