Lando Norris has apologised for his Baku outburst twice now, once privately to Franco Colapinto and once publicly on Instagram. By any normal standard, that should have closed the book on what became a messy weekend. But fans of the reigning champion have found an interview between Colapinto and ESPN Argentina, and aren’t too fussed with what the driver had to say as they took out their frustration on the F1 Reddit comment section.
So what happened to our papaya ace? After a safety car restart in the latter half of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Colapinto locked his tyres while pushing up the inside of Turn 1. His Alpine car impaled that of his team-mate, Pierre Gasly, who in turn hit Norris.
All three cars were out of the race. And Norris, who was still realistically in the title fight at this point, was furious with how his race had ended. He took his anger out on the microphones waiting for him in the media pen, with him focusing his rage on the Argentinian.
“I’ve not seen it. I just got taken out. I think the FIA should be stricter and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff,” Norris told the media. “It’s careless from people. It costs a lot of money. All my parts are in the bin now. People should just get banned, because that’s not driving that deserves to be in Formula 1.”
Colapinto took it on the chin, apologising to his team as well as the ranks of McLaren, and will suffer a five-place grid penalty this weekend.
Once cooled down, Norris apologised to Colapinto for his adrenaline-fuelled words, and has since posted the following to social media: “After the race, I sent Franco a message apologising for the comments I made that I simply should not have said.
Franco Colapinto, Alpine
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
“I know better and emotions were running high but that is not an excuse, it was wrong of me. I’ve made mistakes of my own over the years and I know this is very much a part of racing and fighting on the limit.
“Me and Franco came to a good understanding, are still good friends and are both excited to get back racing this weekend.”
The Briton caught a wave of abuse following Saturday’s chaos, prompting a statement from Alpine condemning such a response.
Colapinto brought Verstappen into this
The interview with ESPN was Colapinto’s chance to put this weekend behind him.
“He obviously went way too far,” Colapinto laughed when asked if Norris went too far. “Besides, he’s the one who talks the most about hate and all that, or did two years ago, when that was what mattered most to him in life. Making those kinds of comments… I think we are also, like, the spokespeople for what we pass on to the fans, and saying those things is wrong, especially in the heat of the moment.”
He continued, comparing Norris’s reaction to that of Max Verstappen when Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli collided with him during the Austrian Grand Prix last year.
“We shouldn’t do it, especially a champion, right? Maybe Max wouldn’t do it, or Max didn’t do it when the same thing happened with Kimi, it was the same thing. And he accepted Kimi’s apology very quickly, right? So, yeah, I think they are obviously different champions, but those are things that need to be avoided. And anyway, he knows it, and he apologised to me. I also apologised to him for taking him out of the race, and yeah, everything is fine, obviously.”
Commenters on Reddit’s popular F1 page didn’t see this as a peace offering. Instead one commented, “Way to not calm the situation down,” as another added: “He basically ignited the fire again.”
“I think the ‘obviously different champions’ is the one that is going to do it,” another predicted as another questioned the need to pull Verstappen into it: “I don’t get why he keeps bringing Max into this, the incident didn’t involve Max in any way, shape or form.”
McLaren left Baku with zero points and an Alpine-sized hole in one of its MCL40s. And while Norris and Colapinto may have moved on, fans don’t seem to be over it.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Team
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
