Norris demands race ban for Colapinto after Baku crash ends McLaren's Azerbaijan GP

Lando Norris has called on the FIA to issue a race ban to Franco Colapinto following the Alpine driver’s costly restart error at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, which eliminated both Norris and Colapinto’s team-mate Pierre Gasly from the race.

On the lap 36 restart, Colapinto locked up his cold front tyres and slid into Gasly at Turn 1, with Norris also caught up in the resulting collision. The incident ended the afternoon for both the McLaren driver and Gasly, compounding a difficult day for Norris who had already lost ground with a Turn 1 error of his own earlier in the restart.

“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,” Norris 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.”

The reigning world champion was dismissive of any suggestion that the notoriously slippery Baku street circuit offered mitigating circumstances. “In Formula 1, I think you expect drivers to anticipate things. Grip is going to be low; tyre temps are low; they weren’t even that low. In Formula 1, we want to be against the best drivers in the world, and when stuff like this happens, it’s because [they] shouldn’t be there. If you cause a crash in a restart like this, you should have at least a one-race ban.”

Colapinto, who had been on course for a points finish alongside Gasly before the incident, was contrite in his post-race comments. “A big mistake,” the Argentine said. “I locked up completely with cold tyres and cold brakes and was out of control completely. Not a lot to say more than sorry to the team, to Pierre of course, to all the factory. We’ve been working really hard to score points and I threw it away with that big mistake. I’m sorry to Lando as well.”

The stewards’ verdict on the incident was still pending at the time of Norris’s comments. The clash adds further scrutiny to Colapinto’s record since joining Alpine, and intensifies debate around whether the FIA’s current penalty framework — which rarely escalates to race bans for on-track collisions — is sufficient to deter careless driving at restarts.