The hours following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix allowed for a reduction in the tension of an episode that had left Franco Colapinto at the center of criticism for his crash that left him, his teammate Pierre Gasly, and Lando Norris without a race. As soon as the competition ended on the streets of Baku, the McLaren driver, who had been very critical of the Argentine, decided to review his statements and made private contact with the Argentine to apologize.
The reigning champion of the Formula 1 later used his social media to make his retraction public. In a Instagram story, he explained that he sent a message to the driver of Alpine. "A difficult weekend overall in Baku and, of course, a disappointing and early race finish. After the race, I sent Franco a message apologizing for the comments I made that I simply shouldn't have said", Norris expressed.
The Brit also acknowledged that the anger from being out of the competition influenced his reaction. "I know well and the emotions were running high, but that's not an excuse, it was wrong on my part", he stated. He added: "I've made my own mistakes over the years and I know this is very much part of racing and pushing to the limit".
As the days went by, the McLaren driver changed his stance and sought to resolve the controversy directly with Colapinto. "Franco and I came to a good understanding, we remain good friends and we are both excited to race again this weekend", concluded Norris.
The origin of the controversy
The conflict had begun on lap 36, when Colapinto attempted a maneuver that ended with Pierre Gasly's crash and subsequently dragged Norris's McLaren. The three were out of the race and the Argentine immediately apologized to his teammate, the team, and the British driver himself.
However, Norris reacted very harshly after the incident. On the day following the accident, he called for a severe penalty for the Alpine driver and stated: "If you cause an accident on a restart like this, you should receive at least a race suspension. I think the FIA should be stricter and start imposing penalties for this kind of thing. It's simply a lack of care on the part of people".
"These people should be suspended because that kind of driving doesn't deserve to be in F1. To be honest, there are drivers who shouldn't be in Formula 1", he concluded.
When Colapinto returns to racing
After his unfortunate participation in Azerbaijan, the Argentine will seek to recover next weekend at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Due to the current geopolitical tension in the Middle East, Formula 1 decided that instead of taking place at the Sakhir circuit, the action will move to the Sepang circuit, Malaysia, although the competition will retain its original name due to the commercial agreements that the category maintains with the Bahraini government. The activity will start on Friday, October 2 with the first free practices and will conclude on Sunday the 4th with the main race.
