Franco Colapinto says he faced an “angry” Flavio Briatore after his Azerbaijan Grand Prix collision with Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly, but will face no further consequences.
Colapinto took out Gasly after locking up at the first safety car restart in Baku last weekend – triggering the wrath of Alpine’s executive advisor as it cost the squad the chance of a good points-scoring opportunity.
Briatore had suggested straight after the race that there was the possibility of Colapinto being given a further punishment by the team beyond the five-place grid penalty he picked up for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
The Italian said in the team’s official press release: “I want to take time to reflect on it and consider what course of action should be taken, so we can learn from it and avoid such a situation in future.”
Colapinto flew straight from the Baku race to Alpine’s Enstone factory, and was put in the simulator to begin Malaysia preparations at 5am the following morning.
While some interpreted the early start as being linked to a potential punishment for what happened in Azerbaijan, it is understood that was not the case at all.
Instead, Alpine had long planned for Colapinto to be there, with the unusual start time based on helping him acclimatise to the time zone shift for Malaysia.
Following the simulator sessions, Colapinto held a series of meetings with both Briatore and other senior Alpine team figures, including managing director Steve Nielsen, racing director Dave Greenwood plus engineers, to run through what happened in Azerbaijan and what needed to be done to avoid a repeat in the future.
While Briatore remained unhappy about what happened, and may have privately considered further sanctions for Colapinto immediately after the events, the conclusion reached in the following days was that it was better to put events down to a lesson well learned.
So while the message was rammed home about being more careful next time and judging situations better, no further action was taken.
Colapinto said he welcomed the way that Briatore had handled things, even if the conversations they had this week were not always easy.
“Of course, Flavio was angry,” said Colapinto. “Everyone in the team was angry. It’s not a nice situation to be in. And even worse to be the one creating that situation. It’s the last thing that you want as a team.
“We were doing a very good job as team-mates on that weekend here. And it’s very sad to finish it like that for a mistake.”
While not revealing too many details about how the talks with Briatore developed, Colapinto said he did welcome how things were handled.
“Of course there are times in the team that everyone is angry and it’s tricky to move forward at the start,” he said. “But you always find a way and Flavio is a great team leader.
“He’s probably one of the best I’ve had in the sport, of course, since I started and has a lot of experience. He’s very good at these situations, knowing how to manage them and knowing how to make the team better.
“I always trusted him in this kind of stuff and, of course, it’s probably not the best when you are the one in the wrong and when you make a mistake but it’s great to have him and learn from it.”
While Colapinto’s error had major consequences for the Alpine team, the actual mistake that he made was relatively minor.
Post-race analysis of the data showed that Colapinto had pushed his brake pedal just 2-3% harder than needed – and that was enough to trigger the lock-up.
As he said in Malaysia, other drivers also made a similar mistake on the entry to Turn 1 – but his situation had a bigger consequence.
“You touch the brakes two or three percent too much, you lock the front and you don’t stop. It’s quite simple,” he said.
“Everyone had a lock-up over the weekend. I just had it at a point that you’re arriving with much more speed. You suddenly have a lot of energy.
“Again, a silly mistake that a lot of drivers did. Lando [Norris] had a few laps before, he locked up in Turn 1. Oscar locked up a few laps after in Turn 1 as well.
“It’s not that you need to look at it like something very tricky to understand. It’s just a lock-up. Of course, it has really big consequences. Again, that’s the tricky bit, that we lost a lot of points. But the mistake itself is something very simple.”
Lando Norris initially called for Colapinto to receive a race ban, but he apologised to Colapinto for those comments shortly after the race.
“I think he was in the heat of the moment…he knows what comments create because he suffered from it,” Colapinto said.
“He was probably the driver that was speaking the most about hate a couple of years ago, just a few seasons ago. So I was very surprised. But then, of course, he apologised.
“Unfortunately, he also got a lot of hate from it. But I also felt it’s a tricky situation with the outside world. And that’s why I think we need to be a bit safe inside about the things we say. And I understand it in the heat of the moment to say things like that.”
Asked what his message would be to any fans giving drivers abuse on social media, Colapinto said: “My message is always the same, that they sometimes don’t realise what you can create by writing in your keyword, and that we are humans, and it’s not easy for us when we get these kind of things.
“I think it always goes to Argentinians, but we miss that it doesn’t come only from Argentinians. It comes a lot from them, I fully agree. It doesn’t just come from them, and they are extremely passionate, and they support me a lot. And it’s bad, and they are bad many times, but it comes from all the world, and from many other fanbases.
“I don’t know if we are not seeing it, I get loads of it and no one ever talks about it. I mean, it’s fine because I don’t look at social media too much. I don’t go into it. But I know it affects a lot of people, and a lot of drivers, and a lot of families more than me.
“I hope that they improve. I’ve been asking for a long time. It’s tricky for us drivers to control it. I think we are the ones to not do them more. But we are also really striving to improve the situation by ourselves. Because we try – for me, it’s been since last year that I’ve been talking about it. I am doing my best, but it’s tricky.”