Franco Colapinto could be stood down for the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix, according to reports, after his error caused a multi-car crash in Azerbaijan. Alpine have said they will "consider what course of action should be taken" following the incident, which ended the Argentine's race and that of team-mate Pierre Gasly, while also sending McLaren's Lando Norris into the barriers.
Colapinto locked up into the first corner at the restart after a Safety Car period, braking too late and leaving Norris furious. The reigning F1 world champion said: "I think the FIA should be more strict and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff. People should just get banned, because that's not driving that deserves to be in Formula One."
Alpine weighing up punishment
Per reports, Alpine could stand the 23-year-old down for next Sunday's race in Sepang. Planet F1 say the idea of standing Colapinto down is not off the table because team boss Flavio Briatore is furious with him. The executive advisor said: "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.
"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. It was a very poor move for a driver of his experience.
"Obviously I'm extremely disappointed with the outcome of today's race, knowing we lost valuable points in the championship fight. These sort 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."
Championship impact and other penalties
Points finishes for both Colapinto and Gasly would have trimmed the gap to Racing Bulls to six points in the Constructors' Championship. Instead, Arvid Lindblad finished seventh and sixth-placed Alpine are now 15 points behind their rivals.
The stewards slapped Colapinto with a 10-second time penalty after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that has been converted into a five-place grid penalty for Sepang. Other potential punishments from Alpine for Colapinto include an internal warning or a fine.
Drivers react to crash
Race winner George Russell dismissed Norris' suggestions that the Alpine driver should face a one-race suspension. Russell said: "It was a small error that had a big consequence. I think, personally, race bans should come from drivers intentionally doing something very dangerous and very reckless. I think it was unfortunate."
Colapinto apologised to both Gasly and Norris post-race in Baku: "I think just to all the team, not only to Pierre, it's a big mistake. Big, big sorry to Pierre and to everyone at the factory who has been working really hard.
"We lost a lot of... well we had both cars in the points. So very sad and very disappointed. Big, big sorry. It's a big mistake.
"Cold brakes, cold tyres, I locked up and was completely out of control. Unfortunately I also took Pierre out and Lando of course. Big sorry to both of them."
Gasly said: "We're all very disappointed with the outcome after such a strong weekend, strong race. I was feeling very good with the car. The pace was almost as good as Lewis [Hamilton] and same as Lando.
"So, keeping up the three-second gap with him until [Norris] locked up in Turn 1, then we had a 15-second margin with Franco behind. I mean, it's still difficult to process what just happened. When you get these chances to score big points, you've got to make it happen. And sadly it didn't happen today.
"I mean, crushed. If you ask me, I'm not happy about today. I'll take his apology."
