Verstappen defends Colapinto after Norris’ words: “An exclusion from a race is too much”

Franco Colapinto He was the negative protagonist of the Baku race by causing a multiple accident after making a serious mistake.

The Argentine was 10th, in the points zone, after Lando Norris (9th), Antonelli (8th) and his partner Pierre Gasly (7th), a perfect situation for Alpinewith its two cars close to achieving a good haul for the Constructors’ World Championship. But on the second start, he made the wrong decision. He arrived too fast at turn 1 and lost control of the car, with such bad luck that he ended up hitting his teammate, Gasly, destroying all the work of the team led by Flavio Briatore. And as a result of that touch, Gasly hit against Norriswhich he had to abandon.

Franco apologized, aware of the seriousness of what happened. “It was a big mistake,” he recognized, affected. He was penalized with 10” that he could not fulfill in yesterday’s race when he abandoned, which becomes a 5-position penalty on the grid for the next event in Malaysia. However, Norris believes the penalty should be much greater for Colapinto. He asked for the exclusion of a GP for number 43.

“They kicked me out of the race. There are drivers who should not be in F1,” he said into the F1 microphone. And before the written press, Norris was harsher: “I think the FIA ​​should be stricter and start giving one-race penalties for this kind of thing”.

Verstappen, Russel and Hadjar come to his defense

Meanwhile, drivers like Verstappen, Hadjar and Russell, the three who stood on the podium, declared themselves against Lando’s words.

“I think that as long as the driver realizes what he did and apologizes, that’s it. These things happen. A small error or miscalculation, you block and there is no grip. I guess it’s a bit unfortunate that it involves so many cars. But yeah, it’s unfortunate, it happens and it’s not pleasant, I think. It’s not pleasant for anyone involved, is it? But, as George said, I think one race exclusion is probably too much.”commented Max after Russell had already come to Franco’s defense.

“I think an exclusion from a race is too harsh, personally. I think that on the starts after the safety car, the tires are cold and a small mistake can have big consequences. And from what I’ve seen today, that’s what seems to have happened. It was a small mistake that had a big consequence. Personally, I think Race exclusion sanctions should be applied when drivers intentionally do something very dangerous and reckless. So I think it was unfortunate,” George said.

Red Bull driver Hadjar, who was third this Saturday, had a similar opinion.

“For my part, I think this circuit is not good enough. When you go off the road, there start to be a lot of potholes. It is difficult to generate tire temperature after the safety car, as it goes quite slowly. So then, yeah, you just go overboard and the consequences are huge. So I think that an exclusion from a race is too harsh,” argued the Frenchman.