Alpine’s Franco Colapinto locked up in the restart at the F1 2026 Azerbaijan GP and missed his braking point in Turn 1; he hit teammate Pierre Gasly, who in turn took out McLaren’s Lando Norris.
It was a stable race in Baku from the start to the halfway mark. On lap 30, Williams’ Alex Albon locked up and crashed into the barriers at Turn 5. Immediately, the Safety Car was deployed, allowing almost all cars a free pit stop.
As the Safety Car ended on lap 36, the restart finally brought chaos to the F1 2026 Azerbaijan GP. Colapinto was P10, Norris P9, and Gasly P7 before everything went wrong. As the Argentinean arrived at Turn 1, he locked up his cold front tyres massively and took out both Gasly and Norris. The Frenchman and Brit had been looking at Lewis Hamilton as championship leader Kimi Antonelli was very cautious on the restart.
All three drivers retired from the race. By the end, Colapinto ended up P17, Gasly 18 and Norris 19, just ahead of Albon, Alonso and Stroll who had retired earlier.
“It’s careless”: Norris on Colapinto’s mistake
McLaren’s Lando Norris angrily reflected on the restart incident after the race. “George can do what he wants, you know,” he agreed with Gasly on Russell’s slow restart up front. “In Formula 1 I think you expect drivers to anticipate things. Grip is going to be low; tyre temps are low; they weren’t even that low.”
On Colapinto’s careless mistake, he said: “In Formula 1, we want to be against the best drivers in the world and when stuff like this happens, it’s because… Yeah, you shouldn’t be there.”
Last year’s world champion was asked whether he would bring the incident up to the FIA at next week’s briefing if Colapinto were to receive a small penalty. A furious Norris called on the FIA to punish the Alpine driver with a race ban after the F1 2026 Azerbaijan GP. “I’ve not seen it, but if you cause a crash on a restart like this, you should have at least a one-race ban.
“I think the FIA should be stricter and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff,” Norris declared. “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.”
“It’s difficult to process what just happened”: Gasly
After the F1 2026 Azerbaijan GP, Pierre Gasly disappointingly discussed the accident. The Frenchman spoke sadly about the crash and claimed he still didn’t understand what had happened. “Yeah, I mean, it’s still difficult to process what just happened,” lamented Gasly.
Still in the car earlier, Gasly had said while frustratingly hitting his car: “I cannot believe it. So many points gone”.
The result was even more frustrating for the Alpine driver given that both teammates were set to score points and put themselves in a great position against Racing Bulls in the battle for 5th.
“Yeah, the car, I think it’s the best race car we’ve had so far this year, which in a way is positive,” highlighted Gasly. “At the same time, if you get a chance to score big points, you’ve got to make it happen. And, yeah, sadly, it didn’t happen today.”
On how he felt after Colapinto’s apology, Gasly said: “Yeah, I mean, crushed. Trust me, I’m not happy about today. I’ll take his apology.”
On Russell’s late restart in the lead contributing to the crash, he said: “No, George does whatever he wants to do, and it’s up to us to…” Gasly further explained: “Obviously, we were quite bunched up, but with the engines we have and the limitations we have with battery, harvest, etc., you’re not really that free in what you can do, so I wasn’t really surprised for him to do that.”
Finally, Gasly was asked about Norris’ reaction to the restart incident and his call for a race ban. The Frenchman wasn’t even aware that he had taken out the McLaren. He just said: “I didn’t even see the footage yet, so…”
“Sorry to everyone”: A devastated Colapinto on his “big mistake” in F1 2026 Azerbaijan GP
Alpine’s Franco Colapinto immediately apologised through the radio, owning up to the restart incident. “Sorry, sorry to all the team and Pierre. Really sorry for that,” the Argetiniean had said.
After the race, Colapinto echoed the sentiment about what happened into Turn 1. “Yeah, just, you know, a big mistake. I locked up completely with cold tyres and cold brakes. And was out of control completely. So not a lot to say more than sorry to the team, to Pierre of course, to the factory.”
The Alpine driver mostly lamented the loss of points. The team was set to gain 7 units in the F1 2026 Azerbaijan GP. Gasly was expected to gain 6, while Colapinto would have scored 1. “Everyone has been working really hard to score points and, you know, we threw it away with that big mistake. So, very sad for the team.
“Of course, a big disappointment. So yeah, not much more than that.”
The Argentinean was also asked about Russell’s delayed restart, but agreed with both Gasly and Norris.
“Yeah, I think it was late, but of course he can do it whenever or wherever he wants. Yeah, we were all backed up, but it’s part of restarting a race.”
When asked about taking out Norris and the Brit’s harsh reaction, Colapinto said: “No, well, sorry to Lando, to be honest. Also to him also, not only Pierre. But yeah, again. Sorry to everyone. It’s a big mistake, of course. Just locked up and then I was very out of control. I couldn’t do a lot.”
Overall, Colapinto insisted on apologizing to his team and to Gasly. “It is more than disappointing to take out your teammate. That’s the biggest part of it, you know, when you make a mistake. If it only affected me, it would be okay to learn, but when it affects the other car as well, it’s even worse.
“We spoke to Pierre, he came back and… Of course, he’s very upset, but… Yeah, I’ll try to talk to him again.”
