Reigning world champion Lando Norris thinks Franco Colapinto deserves “at least a one-race ban” for causing a pile-up at Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
On a lap 36 restart in the streets of Baku, Colapinto locked up his cold front tyres and aimlessly speared into Alpine team-mate Gasly into Turn 1, with Norris also collected by the tangling pair.
The incident knocked both Gasly and Norris out of the race, as well as Colapinto himself, capping off a frustrating afternoon for the McLaren driver who lacked pace and made a Turn 1 mistake of his own that dropped him into the pack on the restart.
The restart clash left Norris furious, feeling Colapinto’s careless driving should be punished harshly by F1’s race stewards.
“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 vented. “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.”
When asked if there were mitigating circumstances for what happened on the slippery Baku circuit, Norris added: “In Formula 1, I think you expect drivers to anticipate things. Grip is going to be low; tyre temps are low; they weren’t even that low. In Formula 1, we want to be against the best drivers in the world, and when stuff like this happens, it’s because [they] shouldn’t be there.
“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.”
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Alex Pantling / LAT Images via Getty Images
Colapinto, who also drew the ire of team-mate Gasly as the pair was on for points, was apologetic afterwards.
“A big mistake,” the Argentinian acknowledged. “I locked up completely with cold tyres and cold brakes and was out of control completely. Not a lot to say more than sorry to the team, to Pierre of course, to all the factory.
“We’ve been working really hard to score points and I threw it away with that big mistake. So, I’m very sad for the team. Of course it’s a big disappointment. I’m sorry to Lando as well.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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