Alpine Team Principal Flavio Briatore has slammed Argentine driver Franco Colapinto after he wiped out the team’s chances of scoring double points at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
On the first Safety Car restart, Colapinto locked up and was out of control heading into Turn 1, taking out Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris in the process.
He was given a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision, which was converted to a five-place grid penalty in Sepang after he retired from the race due to terminal damage to the car.
The Argentine driver took full responsibility for his mistake, “It was a big mistake on my side,” he said.
But McLaren’s Lando Norris did not mince his words in the media pen post-race, calling for Colapinto to receive a race ban for the incident.
“Just some drivers that shouldn’t be in Formula One, to be honest,” he said.
The top three drivers were asked their thoughts on the World Champion’s comments, with all three agreeing that a race ban would be a harsh penalty for a restart incident.
Colapinto’s teammate Pierre Gasly was more diplomatic in his reaction to the incident but was not happy with the team losing points to Racing Bulls in the Constructors’ Championship.
Team Principal Flavio Briatore was not impressed with the incident.
“I’m extremely disappointed with the outcome of today’s race, knowing we lost valuable points in the Championship fight,” he said.
“I know that Franco has taken full responsibility for it, as he should; in fact, he braked far too late considering the context of the race and the safety car restart. It was a very poor move for a driver of his experience.
“I want to take time to reflect on it and consider what course of action should be taken, so we can learn from it and avoid such a situation in [the] future.”
