Flavio Briatore, Executive Advisor to Alpine, responded to the crash caused by Franco Colapinto during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which took out his teammate Pierre Gasly as well as Lando Norris (McLaren).
While the race appeared promising for Alpine, with Gasly in seventh place and Colapinto battling for ninth, a restart after a safety car turned disastrous. Colapinto arrived too fast at turn 1, locked his wheels, and collided with Gasly’s car, which then hit Norris. All three had to retire, with Gasly and Norris out immediately, while Colapinto managed to bring his car back to the pits but without the possibility of repairs.
Briatore expressed deep disappointment, highlighting the loss of valuable points in the championship fight and describing Colapinto’s maneuver as “very bad.” He apologized to Gasly, Norris, and McLaren, while noting that Colapinto took full responsibility for his mistake, braking too late in the context of the restart.
The Alpine advisor indicated he will take time to reflect on the next steps to learn from this incident and prevent it from happening again.