Alpine to decide on 'what course of action should be taken' after Colapinto crash

Flavio Briatore has said he will take time to "consider what course of action should be taken" after Franco Colapinto's error in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix took both him and team mate Pierre Gasly out of the race, as well as McLaren's Lando Norris.

Saturday's race in Baku had been going positively for the Enstone-based team up until that point, with Gasly holding onto seventh place while Colapinto had been duelling for P9 with Norris, who had just dropped down the order following a lock-up.

However, after a Safety Car was called following Alex Albon's crash, Alpine's afternoon unravelled in spectacular style.

At the restart, Colapinto came into Turn 1 too fast, locked up and speared into the side of his team mate’s car, with Gasly in turn hitting Norris. All three went off, with Gasly and Norris parking up immediately, while the Argentine racer managed to limp his car back to the pits

However, his efforts in bringing the car back was to no avail as the damage was too great for the team to repair. As a result that meant a double DNF on a day where double points had looked incredibly likely, while Norris was left less than impressed.

"At the end of the day, I just got taken out… just some drivers that shouldn’t be in F1, to be honest," said the reigning World Champion after the race.

While Colapinto was quick to hold his hands up over the incident, apologising over the radio before adding further apologies after the race to both the team and Gasly, Briatore was left frustrated with the "very poor move".

“Obviously I'm extremely disappointed with the outcome of today's race, knowing we lost valuable points in the Championship fight,” said Alpine's Executive Advisor.

“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 and my apologies also go to Lando [Norris] and McLaren for ruining their race.

“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.

“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.”

Alpine had been on course to slash the nine-point gap to Racing Bulls for fifth in the teams' standings, but instead have fallen six points further adrift as Arvid Lindblad finished seventh.

Colapinto will also be hindered in next weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia after his 10-second penalty for causing the collision was converted into a five-place grid drop, given the Argentine was unable to serve his in-race penalty after retiring.

“Just a big sorry to all of them, to the factory, to Pierre of course," Colapinto said in the Baku media pen.

"[I] took him out, so really disappointed. We were both in a position to score points, was a big day for the team and [I] did a big mistake. Big sorry, it shouldn't happen.”

Giving his verdict, Gasly added: “I don’t think I really have words and I don’t need the words now. We’ll manage it together as a team.

"I’m obviously very disappointed for all the guys, P7 and P10 was a very good race, good pace. Honestly, I have no idea how to answer your question. [We’ve] got to move on.”