Norris Apologises to Colapinto — Turns Out the Title Doesn’t Come With a Judge’s Gavel
Lando Norris briefly decided that winning a championship came with the authority to hand out verdicts on the entire grid. Days later, he walked it back.
The scene in Baku: a Safety Car restart, Franco Colapinto locks up into Turn 1, collects teammate Pierre Gasly, who in turn takes out Norris. All three are out on the spot.
Fresh off the crash, Norris didn’t hold back, saying “some drivers shouldn’t be in Formula 1” and calling for one-race bans for drivers responsible for incidents like it — the kind of unfiltered take that sounds a lot better in the adrenaline of the moment than it does in print the next morning.
By Monday, the regret had set in. In an Instagram post, Norris admitted: “I know better and emotions were running high but that is not an excuse, it was wrong of me.” He said he’d messaged Colapinto privately, and the two “came to a good understanding” and remain friends.
Colapinto, for his part, had already apologised to both drivers in post-race interviews and now carries a five-place grid penalty into Malaysia — a punishment Norris is unlikely to publicly contest a second time. Alpine, meanwhile, used the episode to call out the social media abuse aimed at their driver, pointing out the obvious: mistakes happen when you’re racing at the limit.
Source: Sky Sports (https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/13592672/lando-norris-apologises-to-franco-colapinto-for-critical-comments-made-about-alpine-driver-following-azerbaijan-gp-crash)
