Lando Norris has spoken out about why he issued both a private and public apology to Franco Colapinto after heavily criticising the Alpine driver following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The incident in Baku is still a hot topic, and Norris has now clarified why he felt the need to say sorry twice.
In a dramatic race at the Baku City Circuit, Colapinto locked up during a safety car restart and slid into his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly, who then hit Norris. All three drivers were eliminated from the race. Norris, the reigning world champion, launched a scathing attack on Colapinto, even claiming the Argentine "shouldn't be in F1".
Norris's comments sparked a backlash from fans, and he faced a flood of online abuse. Colapinto was handed a five-place grid penalty for this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Realising his words had crossed a line, Norris decided to apologise directly to Colapinto before issuing a public statement on social media.
"It was more for the wider audience, I would say. I said what I wanted to, to Franco, and he's the only one really that I need to share my opinion and share my apology with," Norris explained in Sepang. "I don't need to do it on social media, and I don't think you need to use social media to make an apology. But at the same time, there was a lot of noise in the background, so I thought it was sensible to show publicly that I had apologised."
Norris also admitted his mistake. "I accepted that I was wrong. I'm generally the same with my driving, to accept when I've done something wrong or accept something I've not. But because it was something I said on TV, I thought it was fair that I shared it with everyone, because they all saw it. I didn't think it was a true value of how I hold myself. At the same time, I still see social media at times and saw some bits, some not so good, some better."
While he acknowledged that passionate fanbases are part of every sport, Norris insisted there is no place for abuse. "Sadly that's what we have to deal with - a lot of sports deal with it, which some of it is down to passion, which you have in sport and you see more of it because on social media it's easy to share your opinions," he added. "And to a certain extent I respect it, but to the extent of online abuse, death threats - all those things are far beyond being a fan of a sport or a driver or a person. There's a line. It's not new. It's something that has been around every sport for a long time and highlights that social media platforms and sports need to do more to stop this kind of stuff from happening."
The incident in Baku drew extra attention as it involved drivers fighting hard in the championship standings. Norris, now driving for McLaren, is battling to defend his title, while Colapinto is trying to prove himself at Alpine. The grid penalty for Colapinto in Bahrain could affect his race position, and the incident also serves as a lesson about pressure and sportsmanship on track.
With the apology now delivered, Norris hopes to refocus on racing. However, the issue of online abuse remains a major task for the motorsport world, and Norris has called for social media platforms and sports authorities to take stronger action. This case shows that behind the glitz of Formula 1, there is still a dark side that needs to be addressed together.
Baca Juga
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