Colapinto's ESPN Argentina interview reignites Norris row despite double apology

Lando Norris appeared to have drawn a line under his Baku outburst when he apologised to Franco Colapinto both privately and in a public Instagram post — but a subsequent interview the Alpine driver gave to ESPN Argentina has reopened the debate among Formula 1 fans.

The original flashpoint came during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, when Colapinto locked his tyres on the inside of Turn 1 following a safety car restart. His Alpine made contact with team-mate Pierre Gasly, who was then pushed into Norris. All three cars retired on the spot.

Norris, still in realistic title contention at the time, made no attempt to hide his anger in the media pen. “I’ve not seen it. I just got taken out. I think the FIA should be stricter and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff,” he said. “It’s 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.”

Colapinto accepted responsibility, apologising to both Alpine and McLaren, and will serve a five-place grid penalty at the next race. Norris, once the adrenaline had subsided, reached out to the Argentinian directly before posting a public statement: “After the race, I sent Franco a message apologising for the comments I made that I simply should not have said. I know better and emotions were running high but that is not an excuse, it was wrong of me. I’ve made mistakes of my own over the years and I know this is very much a part of racing and fighting on the limit. Me and Franco came to a good understanding, are still good friends and are both excited to get back racing this weekend.”

Norris also faced a wave of online abuse in the aftermath of Saturday’s chaos, prompting Alpine to issue a statement condemning the response directed at their driver.

With both men seemingly at peace, the ESPN Argentina interview was Colapinto’s opportunity to close the chapter entirely. Instead, his comments — in which he laughed and suggested Norris “obviously went way too far” while noting the McLaren driver had previously spoken publicly about hate in the sport — have given McLaren supporters fresh cause for complaint, with criticism spilling across F1 forums and the sport’s Reddit community.

The episode illustrates how quickly a resolved on-track incident can be kept alive in the social media era, particularly when one of the drivers involved is a reigning world champion with a vocal fanbase.