Franco Colapinto’s blunder in Baku: penalty for Malaysia, boss Briatore is furious

Restart at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku: Whilst braking for the first corner, the Argentine Franco Colapinto made a silly mistake, approaching the 90-degree left-hander far too quickly; with his wheels locking up, he skidded straight into his Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly, and the Frenchman, in turn, knocked Lando Norris – who was driving to his right – into the TecPro barrier.

The result: three cars out, Alpine left without any points instead of having both cars in the top ten, plus a furious Norris who, following the retirement, demanded that Colapinto be suspended for one race.

The race stewards saw it differently: they handed the impetuous South American Colapinto a five-place grid penalty for the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

Alpine F1 boss Flavio Briatore is fuming. This is because, partly due to Colapinto’s blunder, Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad finished in 7th place, and in the Constructors’ Championship the Bulls pulled ahead of the French team – the score now stands at 83:68 in the battle for 5th place.

The Italian says: “Of course I’m extremely disappointed with the outcome of today’s race, as we’ve lost valuable points in the battle for the championship.”

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“Incidents like this shouldn’t happen, especially as we were both in the points with both cars. I’m very sorry for the team and for Pierre, who did a great job all weekend, and I also apologise to Lando Norris and McLaren for ruining their race.”

“I know that Franco has taken full responsibility for his mistake, as he should. In fact, given the race situation and the restart following the safety car period, he simply braked far too late. That was a very poor move for a driver with his experience.”

“I’d like to take some time to reflect on the whole thing and consider what measures need to be taken so that we can learn from this and avoid such a situation in future.”

There is speculation on social media that Alpine might bencht Colapinto of their own accord. That would be unwise: reserve driver Paul Aron would not perform any better in Malaysia than the Argentine regular driver.