Briatore tears into Colapinto after costly Alpine collapse

Flavio Briatore made no attempt to find mitigating circumstances for Alpine's Azerbaijan Grand Prix disaster.

What had been shaping up as one of the team's most productive afternoons of the season ended in the space of a few seconds when Franco Colapinto locked up at Turn 1 on the lap 36 restart and ploughed into team-mate Pierre Gasly.

Both Alpines were eliminated. Lando Norris was caught in the wreckage and also retired. And a potential double points haul disappeared in an instant.

For Briatore, there was no ambiguity over where responsibility lay.

"Obviously I'm extremely disappointed with the outcome of today's race, knowing we lost valuable points in the Championship fight," Briatore was quoted in Alpine's post-race press release.

"These sorts of incidents shouldn't happen, particularly when we were running well with both cars in point-scoring positions. I feel very sorry for the team and for Pierre who did a great job all weekend and my apologies also go to Lando and McLaren for ruining their race.

No excuses for Colapinto

The circumstances made the error particularly difficult for Alpine to swallow.

The field had just been released following the second safety-car period, meaning drivers were negotiating a notoriously slippery Baku surface on relatively cold tyres and brakes.

But Briatore saw those conditions as part of the challenge rather than an excuse.

"I know that Franco has taken full responsibility for it, as he should; in fact, he braked far too late considering the context of the race and the safety car restart,” he said.

“It was a very poor move for a driver of his experience."

Colapinto had already acknowledged his mistake, admitting afterwards that he had locked his tyres and lost control of the car. His error proved especially costly because Gasly had been running inside the points and Alpine had looked capable of bringing both cars home with a sizeable haul.

Read also:

• Colapinto owns up to Baku carnage: ‘Just a big mistake’

Instead, the team left Baku empty-handed.

Briatore's criticism also arrives at a particularly awkward moment for Colapinto. The Argentine had been enjoying the strongest stretch of his F1 career, a run of performances that helped secure his place alongside Gasly for 2027.

The Baku incident therefore represented a jarring reversal just when his momentum appeared to be building.

Briatore promises a hard look at what happened

With the damage already done, Briatore stopped short of revealing what consequences Colapinto might face. But his comments made clear that Alpine intends to examine the incident rather than simply write it off as an isolated racing mistake.

"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," the Italian said.

In the interim, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix stewards inevitably took matters into their own hands and have sanctioned Colapinto with a five-place grid drop for next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

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