George Russell and Max Verstappen have dismissed the idea of a race ban for Franco Colapinto following his costly collision in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver believes such a penalty would be too harsh, while Verstappen emphasized the importance of awareness and apology from the driver at fault.
The incident occurred on lap 36 during a restart, when Franco Colapinto locked up his front tyres at Turn 1 of the Baku City Circuit, colliding with Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly and McLaren's Lando Norris. Both Gasly and Norris were eliminated, costing Alpine a likely double points finish.
Norris was vocal in his criticism, calling for the FIA to impose a one-race ban for careless driving. "I think the FIA should be more strict and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff. It's careless from people. It costs a lot of money; all my parts are in the bin now. People should just get banned, because that's not driving that deserves to be in Formula 1," Norris said.
However, race winner Russell felt the punishment would be excessive. "I think that's too harsh, personally. Safety car restarts, cold tyres, a very small mistake can have big consequences. From what I saw today, that's what it looked like. A small error that had a big consequence. Race bans should come from drivers intentionally doing something very dangerous and very reckless. So, I think it was unfortunate," George Russell explained.
Verstappen, who finished second, also showed understanding. "As long as the driver that caused it is aware of what he did and apologised, right? A small mistake or misjudgement, you lock up. It's on the inside, low grip, and then I guess it's a bit unfortunate that it involves so many cars. It's not nice for anyone involved, right? But like George said, I think a race ban probably is a bit much," said Max Verstappen.
Third-place finisher Isack Hadjar pointed to the track conditions as a contributing factor. "From my side, I think the track is not good enough. You move out of the racing line, it starts to be very bumpy. It's hard to generate temperature behind the safety car, it's going quite slowly. So, then you just overdo it and then it has big, big consequences," Hadjar said. The lack of grip off the racing line appeared to discourage overtaking into Turn 1, the main passing opportunity on the 6km Baku City Circuit.
The incident adds to the season's controversies and sparks debate over penalty standards in F1. Colapinto has yet to comment officially, but the crash is a blow for Alpine, who lost valuable points.
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