Clarkson sparks Argentina row with Colapinto penalty quip at US Grand Prix

Jeremy Clarkson reignited one of Formula 1’s more unlikely culture-war flashpoints at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, when a live pitlane interview produced a quip about Franco Colapinto’s grid penalty that immediately divided fans online.

Appearing as Alpine’s guest for the weekend at the Circuit of the Americas — a role that stems from his proximity to the team’s Enstone headquarters — Clarkson was asked by Martin Brundle, Naomi Schiff and Simon Lazenby about the French outfit’s prospects. His response was characteristically blunt.

“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 said.

Colapinto is in fact serving a legitimate 10-place grid penalty in Austin for using a fourth control electronics unit of the season. Teammate Pierre Gasly starts from P11.

The remark is a direct callback to one of the most controversial episodes in Top Gear history. In 2014, Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May drove through Patagonia for a special, with Clarkson at the wheel of a Porsche 928 bearing the number plate H982 FKL. Argentine locals interpreted it as a reference to the 1982 Falklands War, and protests broke out in Ushuaia, with war veterans demonstrating outside the crew’s hotel. The situation escalated until the production team abandoned their cars at the roadside and fled across the border into Chile. The BBC maintained the plate was a coincidence, with executive producer Andy Wilman stating that any suggestion the car had been chosen for its plate, or that the plate had been swapped, was “completely untrue”.

Clarkson offered a warmer explanation for his long-standing support of Alpine, tracing it back through the team’s Enstone incarnation across the Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen eras.

“Because they’re our local team. I mean, the girl that looks after my rabbits at the farm, her dad works for Alpine. So you feel as though you’re part of a family with them,” he told the panel.

“That’s pretty tenuous,” Brundle replied with a smile.

The interview also touched on the celebrities Brundle encounters on his famous grid walks, though the conversation’s Argentina detour proved the moment that dominated social media reaction from the Austin paddock.