The Azerbaijan Grand Prix ended prematurely for both Alpine drivers. During the restart of the race, Franco Colapinto lost control of his car and collided with his teammate Pierre Gasly, in an incident that also resulted in Lando Norris's retirement.
After the race, Flavio Briatore conducted a harsh analysis of what happened and questioned the Argentine driver's maneuver. The Italian executive particularly lamented that Alpine wasted an opportunity to score points with both cars.
“I am extremely disappointed with the race result, knowing that we lost very valuable points in the championship fight. These kinds of incidents should not happen, especially when we were having a good race with both cars in points positions,” he expressed.
Alpine's apology to Gasly and Norris
Briatore also highlighted Pierre Gasly's performance throughout the weekend and emphasized the detriment the incident caused to both the Frenchman and McLaren.
“I am very sorry for what happened to the team and to Pierre, who did a great job all weekend. I also apologize to Lando and McLaren for ruining their race,” he stated.
The accident left both Alpines out of the competition and also prevented Norris from completing the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Flavio Briatore's statements about Colapinto
What Briatore said about Colapinto's maneuver
The Italian acknowledged that Colapinto took responsibility for what happened, but considered that the Argentine made a wrong decision at a particularly delicate moment in the race.
“I know Franco took full responsibility, as he should. In fact, he braked too late considering the context of the race and the restart after the safety car,” he explained.
Briatore was even more emphatic when referring to the Argentine driver's experience: “It was a very unfortunate maneuver for a driver with his experience.”
Alpine is considering whether to take action
The executive's statements also left open the possibility that Alpine might take some measures as a result of the Baku accident. Briatore avoided anticipating a concrete decision and indicated that he first wants to thoroughly analyze what happened.
“I want to take some time to reflect on what occurred and evaluate what measures should be taken, so that we can learn from this situation and prevent something like this from happening again in the future,” he concluded.
