Franco Colapinto has revealed he faced the wrath of Flavio Briatore following his collision with Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. However, the young Argentine driver will not face any further consequences from the team.
The incident occurred at the first safety car restart in Baku. Colapinto locked up and took out Gasly, costing Alpine a strong points-scoring opportunity. Briatore, the team's executive advisor, was furious after the race and even suggested that further punishment could be on the cards beyond the five-place grid penalty already handed to Colapinto for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
“I want to take time to reflect on it and consider what course of action should be taken, so we can learn from it and avoid such a situation in future,” Briatore said in the team's official press release.
Colapinto flew straight from Baku to Alpine's Enstone factory and was put in the simulator at 5am the following morning. While some interpreted the early start as linked to a potential punishment, it is understood that was not the case at all. Instead, Alpine had long planned for Colapinto to be there, with the unusual start time based on helping him acclimatise to the time zone shift for Malaysia.
Following the simulator sessions, Colapinto held a series of meetings with Briatore and other senior Alpine figures, including managing director Steve Nielsen, racing director Dave Greenwood, and engineers, to run through what happened in Azerbaijan and what needed to be done to avoid a repeat.
While Briatore remained unhappy and may have privately considered further sanctions immediately after the events, the conclusion reached in the following days was that it was better to put events down to a lesson well learned. The message was rammed home about being more careful next time and judging situations better, but no further action was taken.
Colapinto welcomed the way Briatore handled things, even if the conversations were not always easy. “Of course, Flavio was angry,” said Colapinto. “Everyone in the team was angry. It's not a nice situation to be in. And even worse to be the one creating that situation. It's the last thing that you want as a team. We were doing a very good job as team-mates on that weekend here. And it's very sad to finish it like that for a mistake.”
While not revealing too many details about how the talks with Briatore developed, Colapinto said he did welcome how things were handled. “Of course there are times in the team that everyone is angry and it's tricky to move forward at the start,” he said. “But you always find a way and Flavio is a great team leader. He's probably one of the best I've had in the sport, of course, since I started and has a lot of experience. He's very good at these situations, knowing how to motivate and guide.”
With the matter resolved, Colapinto can now focus on the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang this weekend. He will serve a five-place grid penalty, but his relationship with the team and Briatore has been restored. The Baku incident serves as a valuable lesson for the young driver to be more mature in his on-track decisions.
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