FIA confirms Franco Colapinto punishment after Azerbaijan GP incident
Lando Norris had called for a Franco Colapinto one-race ban
Franco Colapinto has received a 10-second time penalty from the FIA stewards, converted into a five-place grid penalty, following a multi-car collision at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Colapinto had struck the sister Alpine of Pierre Gasly, triggering an incident which also left McLaren’s Lando Norris out of the race. The punishment fell short of the race ban which an angry Norris said should have been coming Colapinto’s way.
FIA stewards issue Franco Colapinto grid penalty
Williams’ Alex Albon instigated the first Safety Car of the race after crashing his Williams at Turn 5. But, the drama was not over.
At the first restart, Colapinto went in too hot down the inside into Turn 1. That saw the Argentine collect his teammate, with Norris also punted into retirement.
Norris was furious when he spoke with PlanetF1.com and others following his DNF. The reigning world champion called for extreme action to be taken against Colapinto.
“I think the FIA should be more strict and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff,” Norris stated.
“It’s just careless from people. 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 admitted that he had not yet watched the incident back, but doubled down on his call for a “at least a one-race ban” to come Colapinto’s way.
The FIA stewards did not take such drastic measures, but did hand out the standard 10-second penalty for causing a collision.
Colapinto was already out of the race, having retired his damaged Alpine, and so could not serve that sanction.
As such, it has been converted into a five-place grid penalty for the next race in which Colapinto competes. That is due to be the Bahrain Grand Prix, in Malaysia, next weekend.
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Colapinto apologised to Gasly and the team over the radio. Alpine had been looking at a double points finish, which turned into a double DNF.
“I locked-up completely with the tyres and brakes, and was out of control completely,” the Argentine admitted when discussing the incident with PlanetF1.com and others.
“Not a lot to say more than sorry to the team, to Pierre, of course, to the factory, who have 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. Big disappointment.
“I’m sorry to Lando. As soon as I touched the brake, I locked-up.”
Colapinto confirmed that he did expect to be penalised for the incident, ahead of the stewards reaching that 10-second turned grid drop verdict.
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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