Franco Colapinto: I have full support from Alpine F1 boss Flavio Briatore
· Yahoo Sports
Franco Colapinto appears to have survived the wrath of Alpine Formula 1 boss Flavio Briatore after he triggered a late-race accident in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix - which cost the team a double points finish. Colapinto locked his brakes during a safety car restart and took out both team-mate Pierre Gasly and McLaren's Lando Norris
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Briatore's post-race statement triggered speculation that he could drop Colapinto from the line-up for this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia as a punishment. Colapinto already faces a five-place grid drop after being found guilty of causing the collision.
"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," said Briatore.
Instead, Colapinto travelled to the UK overnight on a direct F1 charter flight from Baku and was put in the simulator at the factory immediately upon arrival in the small hours of the following morning. It's understood that this was not a punishment but an acclimatisation strategy, given the time difference in Malaysia for the next leg of the triple-header.
On Thursday at Sepang, Colapinto said that a race suspension was never on the cards despite Briatore's rage.
"Not really,” he said when asked if being substituted for reserve driver Paul Aron had been a possible outcome. "Actually, I went straight after the race to the sim. I was in the factory straight away. Getting ready for the race here in Malaysia. Those things never change.
"And our prep for the future never really changed. Of course, Flavio was angry and 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.
"It's not a nice situation to be in. But we fixed it internally and they've been fully supportive – and willing to look forward very quickly.”
Franco Colapinto, Alpine, Lando Norris, McLaren, Pierre Gasly, Alpine
Franco Colapinto, Alpine, Lando Norris, McLaren, Pierre Gasly, AlpineIt's understood that while the accident at Turn 1 during the safety car restart in Baku looked very clumsy on Colapinto's part, analysis of the data revealed it was a relatively small mistake. Colapinto was carrying more speed because of the slipstream effect and demanded slightly too much of the brakes.
"Touch the brakes 2-3% too much, you lock the front and you don't stop,” he said.
"It's quite simple. Everyone had a lock-up. It's just in a point where you are running with much more speed – you suddenly have a lot of energy because you didn't deploy [on the straight, because of the safety car]. We were suddenly doing 320, 330 [km/h] in a corner that maybe you are not [usually] doing as much.
"Touch your brakes, you lock. Just again a silly mistake that a lot of drivers did. Lando had it a few laps before… Oscar [Piastri] locked up a few laps after in turn 1 as well. I think you don't need to look at it like something very tricky to understand. It's just a lock-up. Of course it had really big consequences.”
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