Lando Norris Demands Race Ban After Franco Colapinto Triggers Baku Pileup
· Yahoo Sports
Lando Norris has called for a race ban for Alpine’s Franco Colapinto after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix descended into chaos on a restart after the driver lunged down the inside, hitting his own teammate as well as others.
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The trouble started when Alpine’s own drivers collided with each other coming out of a safety car, a mess that swallowed up Pierre Gasly and left teammate Franco Colapinto’s car in pieces. Norris got caught in the wreckage and was forced to retire on the spot. Speaking to reporters in the media pen afterward, according to journalist Thomas Maher, Norris admitted he hadn’t even reviewed the footage yet, but he already had a punishment in mind for drivers who cause that kind of pileup: a “one race ban.”
He told the media: “George can do what he wants, you know? But in Formula 1, I think you expect drivers to anticipate things, know grip’s gonna be low, know tyre temps are low, they weren’t even that low. Just I mean, we’re in Formula 1, we want to be against the best drivers in the world and when stuff like this happens it’s cause yeah, shouldn’t be there.”
He added: “I’ve not seen [the crash], but I mean, if he causes a crash on a restart like this, yeah, you should have a at least a one race ban.”
Colapinto has been given a ten-second time penalty following his Azerbaijan, which will likely be converted into a grid penalty next weekend in Malaysia.
Why This Sting Hurts More Than a Normal DNF
Baku has never been a gentle track. Its narrow castle-section walls and long straight into a tight braking zone have produced years of safety cars and shredded front wings, and a restart pileup fits the venue’s reputation. But this comes at a bad time for Norris.
He qualified fifth, well behind pole-sitter George Russell, who beat Charles Leclerc to the top spot by 0.837 seconds. Norris’s own Friday session had already gone sideways when a lock-up at Turn 3 in Q3 brought out yellow flags and cost him a shot at a better starting slot. His best lap, a 1:43.672, landed 1.146 seconds off Russell’s pace, a gap Norris himself pinned partly on McLaren’s straight-line speed deficit heading into the weekend, despite the team rolling out a fresh upgrade package with new sidepods, engine cover, diffuser, and floor edge specifically for Baku.
None of that matters once you’re retired by someone else’s mistake on lap one of a restart. A car that was scrapping for points or even a potential podium went straight to the garage.
What This Means for Norris’s Title Fight
Norris arrived in Baku sitting 106 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli, who’d somehow started the race from 16th after crashing out of Q1 the day before. Norris had clawed back 83 points since McLaren’s upgrade debuted at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
“I’m at a point in the championship, where I kind of have to for go pole or die trying, and of course, I paid the price for pushing too much today, but it is what it is,” he said Friday, referring to his own qualifying.