Mercedes driver George Russell feels a Formula 1 race ban would have been “too harsh” on Franco Colapinto after the Argentinian took out Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Lando Norris in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
On a lap 36 restart, Colapinto made an error on the dusty inside approach to Turn 1 of the Baku street circuit, locking up his front tyres and slamming into the side of Gasly, taking both drivers out of the race. Norris was also collected in the incident, which robbed Alpine of a likely double points finish.
Both Gasly and Norris were upset with Colapinto’s driving, with the latter even going as far as calling for the FIA to consider a one-race ban for careless driving behaviour.
“I think the FIA should be more strict and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff. 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,” Norris said, before doubling down on it later.
When Norris’ thoughts were put to the race’s top three finishers, race winner Russell showed more understanding for Colapinto’s blunder: “I think that’s too harsh, personally. I think safety car restarts, cold tyres, a very small mistake can have big consequences. And from what I saw today, that’s what it looked like. It was a small error that had a big consequence.
“I think, personally, race bans should come from drivers intentionally doing something very dangerous and very reckless. So, I think it was unfortunate.”
Photo by: Joe Portlock / Getty Images
Runner-up Max Verstappen, who suffered a similar fate last year when he was taken out by Kimi Antonelli at the start of the Austrian GP, was also more clement than Norris: “As long as the driver that caused it is aware of what he did and apologised, right? I mean, that happens. A small mistake or misjudgement, you lock up.
“It’s on the inside, low grip, and then I guess it’s a bit unfortunate that it involves so many cars. It’s not nice for anyone involved, right? But like George said, I think a race ban probably is a bit much.”
Podium finisher Isack Hadjar also named the track as an important contributor, with Colapinto’s error just one of many lock-ups on the low-grip street surface. The lack of grip off the racing line appeared to discourage drivers from attempting overtakes into Turn 1, the 6km Baku City Circuit’s main passing opportunity.
“From my side, I think the track is not good enough,” Hadjar said after taking third on his return from injury. “You move out of the racing line, it starts to be very bumpy.
“It’s hard to generate temperature behind the safety car, it’s going quite slowly. So, then you just overdo it and then it has big, big consequences. So, I think a race ban is way too harsh.”
The FIA race stewards handed Colapinto a 10-second penalty. But as the Alpine driver eliminated himself from the race, that punishment will be converted into a five-place grid drop for next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
Colapinto apologised for what he called a “big mistake“, which also drew the ire of Alpine chief Flavio Briatore.
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