Lando Norris Calls for a Franco Colapinto Race Ban After Baku Crash Wrecks His McLaren
- Lando Norris says Franco Colapinto deserves a one-race ban for the first-corner restart crash that ended his Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
- Colapinto picked up a five-place grid penalty for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia after stewards converted a 10-second time penalty he could not serve on track.
- Pierre Gasly, whose Alpine was also wrecked in the same crash, says he is still trying to process losing points to Racing Bulls in the fight for fifth place in the constructors’ standings.
“Some Drivers Shouldn’t Be in Formula 1”
Lando Norris walked away from a wrecked McLaren at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and said Franco Colapinto should serve a race ban for causing the crash that ended his afternoon.
Norris’s race finished on lap 36, at the first Safety Car restart, when Colapinto locked up under braking into Turn 1 and hit the side of his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly. Gasly’s car was sent into Norris on the outside, and all three drivers retired on the spot.
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Three Cars Out in an Instant
At the point of contact, Gasly had been running seventh, Norris eighth and Colapinto 10th. Norris had already spent the race fighting straight-line speed problems on his McLaren, and had dropped behind Gasly six laps earlier after running wide at Turn 1.
Speaking to written media after the race, a frustrated Norris said: “At the end of the day, I just got taken out. Just some drivers that shouldn’t be in Formula 1, to be honest.”
He continued: “I’ve not seen it, but if you cause a crash in a restart like this, you should have at least a one-race ban. I just got taken out. And the FIA should be stricter by starting to hand out bans for this kind of stuff.”
Norris described Colapinto’s driving as “just careless” and said it fell short of the standard Formula 1 should hold its grid to.
“It costs a lot of money, all my parts are in the bin now,” he added. “It is not driving that deserves to be in Formula 1. In Formula 1 you would expect that drivers can anticipate that the grip will be low and tyre temperatures are low. You want to be against the best drivers and when stuff like this happens it is because, yeah, they shouldn’t be there.”
Colapinto’s Apology
Colapinto was apologetic on team radio and again in his interviews after the race, calling the move a “big mistake.”
“Just to all the team, not only to Pierre, but it’s just a big mistake,” Colapinto said. “So a big, big sorry to Pierre, to everyone in the factory that has been working really hard. We were with both cars in the points so very sad and disappointed. Big, big sorry, it’s a big mistake. Just cold brakes, cold tyres and locked up and completely out of control. Unfortunately, I also took Pierre out and Lando of course but big sorry to both of them.”
Stewards handed Colapinto a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision. He had already retired and could not serve it on track, so the sanction became a five-place grid penalty for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, which Formula 1 is hosting at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia for the first time in nine years.
Formula 1 bans a driver for a race once they build up 12 penalty points on their superlicence within a rolling 12-month period. Colapinto sat on four points before Baku and picked up no additional points for the incident, on top of the grid drop.
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A Costly Afternoon for Alpine
Gasly had been on course to match his second-best result of the year with seventh place, on a strong weekend for the Frenchman around the streets of Baku. With Colapinto also inside the points when the Safety Car came out, Alpine were closing in on wiping out a nine-point gap to Racing Bulls in the fight for fifth place in the constructors’ championship.
Instead, Alpine left Baku 15 points behind Racing Bulls, after a late surge saw Arvid Lindblad take seventh place in Gasly’s absence.
Gasly told Sky Sports F1 he was almost lost for words. “It’s not easy,” he said. “We did a very good weekend and it was one of the best race cars we’ve had this season and the pace was great, keeping up with Lewis [Hamilton] and Lando for most of the race and we had a 14 or 15-second gap to the midfield. So I think a lot of positives to take away but I’m still struggling to process the outcome and the fact we had both cars in the points and in the end we got outscored by Racing Bulls by a lot of points.”
He added: “Not an ideal day but I’m sure we are going to move on from it. Unfortunately, we have lost out today, hopefully we can make it up to the end of the year.”
A Costly Result for the Title Fight
The zero-point result leaves Norris on 186 points in the drivers’ standings, 13 points behind Lewis Hamilton in third and a long way adrift of championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who sits on 302 after recovering to fifth in Baku from 16th on the grid. George Russell’s win moved him to 236 points and second overall. Teammate Oscar Piastri also failed to score in Baku after a separate lock-up sent him off the road, meaning neither McLaren driver added to the tally on a weekend the team could not afford to lose ground.
Piastri had run as high as second before his own lock-up at a restart, telling Formula 1’s website: “The lock-up I need to understand what happened because it certainly took me by surprise. I need to go and have a look, but obviously very disappointing not to have a result at the end.” He was eventually classified 14th, completing a weekend in which McLaren’s two cars combined for zero points.
The crash landed only weeks after Gasly spoke out about online abuse aimed at him and his family following an earlier incident with Colapinto at the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid, which Colapinto and Alpine have both condemned. Both drivers are already confirmed at the team for next season.
Asked if their partnership could keep working, Gasly replied: “Respect. It’s all about respect. As long as there is respect, everything is possible.”
Colapinto added: “We are good. We have always been quite good together. Since we worked together for the first time, we got on very well so we need to move on.”
Straight Into a Triple-Header
There is no time to dwell on Baku. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix opened a run of three races in three weekends, with the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia followed by rounds in Singapore. For Norris, the message after the crash was blunt: a title defence already under pressure cannot keep absorbing zero-point weekends caused by other people’s mistakes. For Alpine, the task is to hold onto fifth place in the constructors’ standings against a Racing Bulls squad that has now overtaken them in the space of one afternoon. Colapinto carries his grid penalty into Sepang, and both he and Gasly know their next move on track will be watched closely after Baku.
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