Alpine Drivers Penalised Post-Race, Ryo Hirakawa Scores on F1 Debut at Mexico GP

Ryo Hirakawa went to bed on Sunday night without a Formula 1 point to his name. He woke up with one.

The Haas stand-in crossed the line 13th at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, 25.373 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen. Then the stewards went to work. Overnight, three drivers ahead of him fell out of the top ten, and the 32-year-old from Kure, Hiroshima, slotted into tenth in the final classification.

Two of those three drove for Alpine.

Yellow flags wipe out Alpine’s afternoon

Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto took the chequered flag in tenth and eighth. Neither result lasted the night.

Gasly got the heavier sanction. According to PlanetF1, the stewards ruled he failed to slow enough in a double yellow flag sector. They gave him a stop-and-go penalty, converted to 30 seconds because the race had already finished, plus two penalty points on his superlicence. Gasly and the team argued he had lifted significantly. The stewards checked his telemetry against other cars through the same stretch of track and decided the “small reduction noted was not sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the regulations” (Pitpass).

Colapinto’s case came down to a single yellow sector. Alpine turned up with telemetry and photographs to show he had complied. The stewards weren’t persuaded after going through the data and onboard footage. Verdict? A 10-second time penalty and one penalty point, which takes the Argentine to five points in the current 12-month window.

There’s an odd twist. Colapinto escaped punishment for an earlier double yellow sector, because the stewards felt there was enough doubt over whether he’d had sufficient warning to react.

Here’s how Alpine’s Sunday unravelled:

• Colapinto: eighth on the road, 15th in the final classification
• Gasly: tenth on the road, 17th in the final classification
• Team haul: five points on Sunday evening, zero by Monday morning

Flavio Briatore didn’t hide his frustration. “After the penalties applied post-race, we leave Mexico City without any points” he said, speaking to GrandPrix.com. He called the outcome a pity, given both cars had finished in the top ten.

Two drivers who had both cars in the points, and both lost them for not lifting enough under yellows. A painful way to lose five points.

Piastri adds to the reshuffle

Alpine weren’t the only ones punished. Oscar Piastri got a 10-second penalty for his lap 59 clash with Arvid Lindblad, which put the Racing Bulls car into the barriers and brought out the safety car. The McLaren driver fell from seventh to 13th.

The knock-on effect up and down the order, per GPblog:

• Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) climbs to seventh, six points instead of two
• Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) moves up to eighth for four points
• Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) rises from 12th to ninth for two points
• Hirakawa (Haas) takes tenth and the final point

The top six didn’t change. Verstappen won from fifth on the grid, Lewis Hamilton finished second after taking pole, and Kimi Antonelli’s third place sealed his first world title.

From Friday reserve to Sunday racer

Hirakawa wasn’t meant to race at all.

He drove Esteban Ocon’s car in FP1 to satisfy the rookie practice rule, then handed the car back. Ocon’s Friday went badly. During FP2 he argued with race engineer Laura Mueller over a change to his run plan, as Crash.net reported. He was supposed to do a race simulation on softs, but Haas switched him to mediums after Ollie Bearman flat-spotted his soft tyres.

On Saturday morning, Haas put out a two-line statement. Hirakawa would take over for the rest of the weekend. No reason given, other than confirmation Ocon wasn’t ill (The Race).

Then French media reported a physical altercation between Ocon and team principal Ayao Komatsu. Ocon admitted to a “difference in viewpoints” the night before but rejected any suggestion of violence. “I strongly condemn violence in all its forms” he wrote in a statement carried by RacingNews365.

Some background on Ocon’s position: Haas had already decided to replace him with Ferrari junior Rafael Câmara for 2027. Mexico made a messy situation messier.

A debut with no warm-up

Hirakawa found out on Saturday morning. He went through final practice, qualified 18th and lined up for 71 laps at altitude in a car he’d driven for one practice hour.

He kept his expectations sensible. “There were a lot of things to do, especially the start and lap one” Hirakawa told Dive Bomb. He said he gave himself plenty of room off the line, because finishing mattered more than a heroic first lap. After the start, he watched the drivers around him and copied what they were doing.

He was right to play safe. Bearman retired on lap 47 with damage from contact with Nico Hülkenberg. Without Hirakawa, Haas would have left Mexico with nothing.

Instead, the team leaves seventh in the constructors’ standings on 31 points.

Who is Ryo Hirakawa?

If the name rings a bell but you can’t place him, here’s the short version.

• Won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota in 2022, his first season in the World Endurance Championship, and the WEC title too (Wikipedia)
• Former Super Formula runner-up (2020), with four wins in the series
• First F1 practice outing with McLaren in Abu Dhabi in 2024, then FP1 for Alpine at Suzuka in 2025
• Joined Haas as reserve in April 2025 through the team’s Toyota partnership

He’s also 32. Most F1 debutants are a decade younger. Hirakawa has talked openly about wanting a race seat “when I’m not too old” and Toyota’s backing has kept his name in the conversation. Câmara won the 2027 seat, though, so this weekend might be the closest he gets for now.

Not a bad souvenir to take home.

What comes next

The São Paulo Grand Prix follows on 8 November. Reports after the race left Ocon’s status for the final four rounds unclear, and Haas has said nothing more. If you’re a Hirakawa fan, keep an eye on the team’s announcements this week.

For Alpine, Interlagos is a chance to get those five points back. And a reminder for both drivers: when the yellows come out, lift.