Lando Norris has apologized to Franco Colapinto for his comments following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, admitting that his call for the Alpine driver to be banned after their Baku crash was wrong.
The incident occurred at the first Safety Car restart on lap 36, when Colapinto locked up under braking for Turn 1 and hit his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly. Gasly was then sent into Norris, forcing all three drivers to retire from the race.
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Norris was furious after the incident and called for the FIA to take tougher action against such mistakes.
“Just some drivers that shouldn’t be in Formula 1, to be honest,” Norris said after the race. He later added that “the FIA should be stricter by starting to hand out bans for this kind of stuff,” arguing that a driver causing a crash during a restart should receive at least a one-race ban.
Norris had not yet seen a replay of the incident when he made the comments. Colapinto, meanwhile, immediately accepted responsibility, describing the crash as a “big mistake” caused by cold tires and brakes and apologizing to both Gasly and Norris.
Two days later, Norris contacted Colapinto directly to apologize for what he had said.
“After the race, I sent Franco a message apologizing for the comments I made that I simply should not have said,” Norris wrote in a statement posted on Instagram.
“I know better and emotions were running high, but this is not an excuse.”
The McLaren driver also acknowledged that his criticism had gone too far, saying, “It was wrong of me. I’ve made mistakes of my own over the years and I know this is very much part of racing and fighting on the limit.”
Norris said he and Colapinto had since “came to a good understanding” and remained on good terms after the incident.
Colapinto was given a 10-second penalty by the stewards for causing the collision. As he retired from the race, the penalty was converted into a five-place grid drop for the next Grand Prix.
