Flavio Briatore warns Franco Colapinto of consequences for “very poor move” at Azerbaijan GP
Flavio Briatore has torn into Franco Colapinto after he ruined Alpine's chances of a double-points finish in Baku.
Alpine Formula 1 chief Flavio Briatore has warned Franco Colapinto of potential consequences after he caused a multi-car crash that took out team-mate Pierre Gasly in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
An out-of-control Colapinto locked up at the first corner following a safety car restart and steamed into the side of Alpine team-mate Gasly, who in turn smashed into McLaren’s Lando Norris in an incident that wiped out all three drivers.
Colapinto took full blame for the incident and apologised to Alpine and Gasly for making a “big mistake” that saw the Argentine hit with a five-place grid penalty for next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
The collision cost Alpine a potential double points finish as both Colapinto and Gasly were running inside of the top 10 at the time. Alpine sits sixth in the constructors’ championship on 68 points, 15 behind Racing Bulls in the battle for fifth.
Briatore was unimpressed with what happened and slammed Colapinto for his “very poor move”, while stating Alpine will “consider what course of action should be taken” against its driver.
“Obviously I'm extremely disappointed with the outcome of today's race, knowing we lost valuable points in the Championship fight,” Briatore said in Alpine’s post-race press release.
“These sort of incidents shouldn't happen, particularly when we were running well with both cars in point-scoring positions. I feel very sorry for the team and for Pierre who did a great job all weekend and my apologies also go to Lando [Norris] and McLaren for ruining their race.
“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 future.”
Reigning world champion Norris was particularly scathing of Colapinto and said the Alpine driver deserved a race ban for causing the incident.
However, Max Verstappen and George Russell both defended Colapinto.
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