Alpine Weighs Options After Colapinto's Costly Crash in Azerbaijan
Alpine's Franco Colapinto collided with teammate Pierre Gasly during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, causing a disappointing double DNF for the team. Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore is considering the next steps following the incident.
Flavio Briatore is taking a moment to consider his options after Franco Colapinto's blunder during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix led to an unfortunate double DNF for Alpine. The incident not only took out Colapinto and his teammate Pierre Gasly but also involved Lando Norris, much to McLaren's dismay.
The race had been shaping up nicely for Alpine, with Gasly in seventh and Colapinto battling for ninth against Norris, who had just slipped down the order after a lock-up. However, the afternoon took a nosedive after a Safety Car was deployed following Alex Albon's crash.
As the race restarted, Colapinto misjudged Turn 1, locking up and colliding with Gasly, who then hit Norris. While Gasly and Norris were forced to retire immediately, Colapinto managed to limp back to the pits, though his car was too damaged to continue. What could have been a promising points haul for Alpine turned into a day to forget.
Norris, the reigning World Champion, was understandably unimpressed. "At the end of the day, I just got taken out… just some drivers that shouldn’t be in F1, to be honest," he remarked post-race.
Colapinto promptly apologized over the radio and to the team and Gasly later on. Briatore, however, was left lamenting the "very poor move" from the Argentine driver. "Obviously I'm extremely disappointed with the outcome of today's race, knowing we lost valuable points in the Championship fight," he said. "These sorts of incidents shouldn't happen, particularly when we were running well with both cars in point-scoring positions."
Briatore added that Colapinto had taken full responsibility for the mishap. "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."
Looking ahead, Briatore wants to reflect on the incident and decide what actions should be taken to prevent such occurrences in the future. Meanwhile, Alpine's aspirations to close the gap on Racing Bulls for fifth in the Constructors' Championship were dashed, with the team now even further behind.
As for Colapinto, he's facing a five-place grid drop for the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, an outcome of his 10-second penalty which he couldn't serve due to his retirement. "Just a big sorry to all of them, to the factory, to Pierre of course," he said, expressing his regrets. "We were both in a position to score points, was a big day for the team and I did a big mistake. Big sorry, it shouldn't happen."
Gasly, for his part, was lost for words after the race. "I don’t think I really have words and I don’t need the words now. We’ll manage it together as a team. I’m obviously very disappointed for all the guys, P7 and P10 was a very good race, good pace. Honestly, I have no idea how to answer your question. We've got to move on."