Lando Norris has called for drivers to be banned for taking others out at safety car restarts after he was collected by two Alpine cars at turn one in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Brit was powerless to prevent the collision when Franco Colapinto slammed into his team-mate, causing a chain reaction that ended the race for all three drivers.
Chain reaction at turn one
The race had been neutralised after Alex Albon crashed, and there was more chaos after the safety car peeled back into the pit lane. George Russell waited for as long as he could before putting his foot down and safely retained the lead of the race, but there was drama behind him as not everyone was ready for the braking zone into turn one.
Colapinto locked up both his front tyres and, from there, he was a passenger inside the car. He ended up slamming into the side of Pierre Gasly in the other Alpine, who in turn was pushed into the McLaren on the outside of the corner. All three of them had to retire from the race as a result of the damage done to their cars.
Norris demands stricter penalties
Norris was out of his car straight away and, even with his helmet on, his frustration was obvious through his body language as he took deliberate, swift strides back to the pit lane. He was quickly into the media pen, where he admitted he had not yet watched back the incident but felt the level of driving shown was not the standard expected of anyone on this F1 grid.
Norris fumed: "In Formula 1, I think you expect drivers to anticipate things, to know grip is going to be low, to know tyre temperatures are low. In Formula 1, we want to be against the best drivers in the world and, when stuff like this happens... Yeah, we shouldn't be there.
"I think the FIA should be more strict and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff. It's just 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. 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."
Colapinto apologises and McLaren suffer
Also speaking in the media pen, Colapinto held his hands up and apologised for his "big mistake" which caused the collision. The stewards have issued him a 10-second time penalty, which may end up being converted into a grid drop for the next race in Malaysia, as he was unable to serve it before retiring.
It ended up being a pointless day for McLaren. Oscar Piastri was running in the podium spots throughout the race, but lost it when he locked up at the first corner after the second safety car and ended up taking the run-off area. By the time he could rejoin he was second to last of the cars still in the race and ended up finishing outside the top 10.
The Australian said: "I need to look at it. It was a bit weird, it locking up both fronts instantly like that. I didn't think I did anything spectacularly wrong. Obviously, I was on a different line to usual, defending, so I don't know if there was something on the road. But it was certainly a surprise to me."
