After Baku Crash: Alpine Boss Briatore Threatens Colapinto

Alpine driver Franco Colapinto faces internal consequences after his serious accident at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

After his crash with teammate Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris, the Argentine not only received a grid penalty for the next race but also drew strong criticism from within his own team from Alpine boss Flavio Briatore.

"Such incidents must not happen, especially when both our cars were running well and in the points," said the Italian. At the same time, he apologized to Gasly and Norris, and McLaren respectively, for the consequences of the accident.

"I am very sorry for the team and for Pierre, who did a great job all weekend, and I also want to apologize to Lando and McLaren for ruining their race," said Briatore.

"Very Weak Action"

Colapinto himself also took responsibility after the accident. For Briatore, however, the matter was far from over. The Alpine boss particularly criticized his driver's decision to brake too late at the restart.

"I know Franco took full responsibility for it, as he should," Briatore said. He then became even clearer: "In fact, given the race situation and the restart behind the Safety Car, he braked far too late."

His final judgment was accordingly sharp: "It was a very weak action for a driver of his experience."

Crash Could Have Consequences

Briatore also indicated that the crash could have internal consequences. However, the Italian did not announce any specific measures initially.

"I want to take my time to think about it and consider what measures should be taken so that we can learn from this and avoid such a situation in the future," he explained.

This season, Colapinto had regularly shown in the points despite a not always competitive Alpine and recently extended his contract for another year.

With 27 World Championship points, the Argentine is in twelfth place in the overall standings, just two places and 14 points behind his teammate Gasly.

Colapinto Receives Penalty

The serious incident occurred after the restart on lap 36. Colapinto approached Gasly from behind on the exit of the first corner, braked too late, and entered the next corner on the inside with excessive speed.

In doing so, he hit his teammate, who subsequently collided with Norris. The race ended for all three.

The race stewards found Colapinto primarily at fault. They explicitly did not apply a milder standard due to it being the first corner after a restart. In their assessment, no other driver made a significant contribution to the accident.

Since Colapinto himself could not continue after the collision, the regular ten-second penalty could no longer be applied. The FIA therefore converted it, in accordance with the sporting regulations, into a five-place grid penalty for the next race in Malaysia.