Commotion After Crash

Norris is furious: “He has no business being in F1!”

World Champion Lando Norris was taken out by Franco Colapinto in Baku.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov, AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Lando Norris is furious after the violent crash with Franco Colapinto in Baku and is even calling for a race ban for the Argentine. The world champion made it clear that, in his view, such a driving style “has no place in Formula 1.”

At the restart following a safety car period, disaster struck in Turn 1. Colapinto braked too late, hit Pierre Gasly, and then pushed him into Norris. That ended the race for both Gasly and the world champion. Norris had some strong words afterward. “I was just taken out of the race. I think the FIA should take a tougher stance and impose suspensions for incidents like this.”

Norris continued: “That’s just reckless. It costs a lot of money. All my parts are in the trash now. People should just be suspended, because that kind of driving has no place in Formula 1.” Well, that’s quite a statement...

Norris also rejected the excuse of cold tires following the safety car phase. “In my opinion, in Formula 1, you expect drivers to anticipate situations like that.”

He later reiterated on “F1 TV” that there are some “drivers who shouldn’t be in Formula 1.” He had previously stated: “In Formula 1, we want to compete against the best drivers in the world, and when something like this happens, it’s because [they] don’t belong there.”

+1

Fotos

Colapinto: “A big mistake”
Colapinto took responsibility after the race. “With cold tires and cold brakes, I completely locked up the wheels and lost control entirely,”explained the Argentine, calling it a “big mistake.”

“There’s not much more to say other than to apologize to the team, of course to Pierre, and to all the staff. We worked really hard to score points, and then we threw it all away because of this big mistake.”

Franco Colapinto was fed up after the accident.(Bild: AP/Darko Bandic)

Carlos Sainz came to Colapinto’s defense, at least in part. “I think it’s extremely easy to make mistakes with these cars.” The “freezing-cold tires,” in particular, had been a problem. Although Pirelli had already brought the three softest compounds to Baku, according to the Spaniard, even softer tires would have been needed. “Anyone can make a mistake like that, but this year it’s especially easy to make such mistakes,” said Sainz.

Russell: Race ban would be “too harsh”
Race winner George Russell also considered Norris’s call for a ban to be excessive. “Personally, I think that’s too harsh.” The Mercedes driver also pointed out the difficult conditions following safety car periods: “I believe that during restarts after a safety car period with cold tires, even a very small mistake can have major consequences.”

In Russell’s view, a race ban should only be imposed for significantly more serious conduct. “Personally, I believe that race bans should only be imposed when drivers intentionally do something very dangerous and very reckless.”

Max Verstappen expressed a similar view. Such mistakes can happen; while the large number of cars involved is “unfortunate,” a suspension would be “a bit much” in his opinion. Isack Hadjar agreed with this assessment .

Briatore Considers Consequences
At Alpine, the crash caused frustration. Because Gasly also retired, the team failed to score any points in Baku. “Of course, I am extremely disappointed with the outcome of today’s race, as we lost valuable points in the fight for the championship,” explained Flavio Briatore. “Incidents like this shouldn’t happen.” The Alpine boss also apologized to McLaren and Norris and sharply criticized Colapinto: “I know that Franco has taken full responsibility for this, as he should. [...] For a driver with his experience, that was a very poor maneuver.”

Alpine boss Flavio Briatore had words of caution for Franco Colapinto.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/Getty Images via AFP/GETTY IMAGES/Minas Panagiotakis, APA/AFP/Gabriel BOUYS)

Briatore announced that he would examine possible internal consequences: “I want to take some time to think about this and consider what measures should be taken so that we can learn from this and avoid such a situation in the future.”

Five-grid-position penalty in Malaysia
And indeed. The FIA reacted quickly after the race ended. Colapinto received a ten-second penalty for the accident. Since he did not finish the race and could no longer serve the penalty, he will be setbackfivegrid positionsat the next Grand Prix in Malaysia. 

The race stewards concluded that Colapinto had braked too late and entered the turn at a speed that made it impossible to navigate it in a controlled manner. They determined that he bore “sole or predominant responsibility for the collision.” Even the fact that the incident occurred immediately after the restart did not change this ...