Lando Norris Apologizes to Franco Colapinto for Post-Baku Incident Comments
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World Champion Lando Norris has apologized to Franco Colapinto for demanding the Argentine be banned from a race following their collision during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Formula 1.
Colapinto triggered a multi-car pile-up on the restart of lap 36 after locking up his tires at the first corner of Baku's slippery street circuit. The incident led to the retirement of Colapinto himself, his teammate Pierre Gasly, and Norris from McLaren.
Norris was furious after the incident, stating that Colapinto's reckless driving should be severely penalized by F1 stewards.
"I haven't watched the replay. I was just taken out of the race. I think the FIA needs to be stricter and start imposing race bans for things like this," Norris fumed.
"This is negligence from some people. It costs a lot of money. All my parts are now junk. People just need to be penalized because this isn't driving that deserves to be in Formula 1."
Asked if there were mitigating circumstances given the slippery track in Baku, Norris added: "In Formula 1, you expect drivers to anticipate things."
"Grip will be low. Tire temperatures are low, although they weren't that low. In Formula 1, we want to race against the best drivers in the world, and when things like this happen, it's because they shouldn't be here."
"If you cause a crash on such a restart, you should get at least a one-race ban."
After two days to reflect on the incident, Norris has now retracted those comments and stated that he personally apologized to Colapinto, after his words sparked a new wave of online harassment that has plagued the Argentine's F1 career.
"Overall, a tough weekend in Baku and, of course, a disappointing and early end to the race," Norris wrote on social media.
"After the race, I messaged Franco to apologize for the comments I made that I simply shouldn't have said."
"I know I can be better, and emotions were running high, but that's no excuse, it was wrong of me. I've made mistakes myself over the years and I know that's a big part of racing and fighting on the limit."
"Franco and I have cleared the air, we're still good friends, and we're both excited to get back to racing this weekend."
Colapinto took responsibility for his "big mistake," which also angered Alpine boss Flavio Briatore, as it cost the team a double points finish.
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