Norris’ crack on Colapinto: “There are drivers who should not be in F1”
Lando Norris was one of the victims of Franco Colapinto in a chaotic restart after the first safety car during the Baku GP. The Argentine locked the brakes entering turn one, avoided Kimi Antonellibut he took his teammate, who had just lost position with Norris on the outside of the curve. In the chain effect, the Alpine They picked up the Englishman who ended up against the wall. “I made a mistake, but at the end of the day they kicked me out of the race. There are drivers who shouldn’t be in F1,” Norris told F1.
The accident leaves Norris without points in Baku despite the fact that he was about to take seventh place in the safety car start. He had started the race in fifth position, was overtaken by hamilton after a mistake and then on lap 30 he made an even worse one by blocking in turn one, which left him behind Pierre Gasly and Antonelli. “It was slow. We suffered a lot on the straights. We hope to solve this for next time”.
I think the FIA should be stricter and start giving him race penalties for doing this kind of thing.
In statements reported by The Race, he was harsher with pilots who cause multiple accidents of this type. “I think the FIA should be stricter and start giving him race penalties for doing this kind of thing”.
In 2012, the French Romain Grosjean was penalized for a similar action at the Belgian GP, where he caused an accident in turn one that knocked out drivers like Alonso and hamiltonwho at that time were in the middle of fighting for the World Cup. This made him miss the Italian GP, being replaced by Jerome d’Ambrosio.
There have been similar incidents since that time, such as the one caused by Kimi Antonelli last year in Austria or the one caused by Charles Leclerc at the 2020 Sakhir GP before the victory of Sergio Perez. Since Romain Grosjean, no one has been penalized with a race for an accident of this type, so it seems It is unlikely that Franco Colapinto will not be in Bahrain.
The Argentine could do nothing but apologize to both his team and Pierre Gasly. Their mistake has made Alpine lose some valuable points with both cars and they also distance themselves from Racing Bulls in the drivers’ championship, since Arvid Lindblad He manages to comfortably enter the points thanks to the accident, and finishes 7th to add 6 points to the cause of the Faenza team.
