‘These moments make us stronger’ – Gasly and Colapinto insist Alpine must ‘look ahead’ after Baku collision

Pierre Gasly believes that Alpine have “got to look ahead” and focus on the Constructors’ Championship for the rest of the season, with the Frenchman happy to move on from his team mate’s “unfortunate mistake” that saw them collide in Baku.

On the Safety Car restart in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Franco Colapinto locked up and drove into the side of Gasly’s car, pushing him into the McLaren of Lando Norris and forcing all three to retire.

While the Argentine driver was quick to apologise after the race, Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore hinted that there could be further repercussions as he considered “what course of action should be taken”.

Colapinto was punished by the stewards with a five-place grid penalty that will be imposed at this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, but Gasly confirmed that the two shared a conversation that otherwise enabled them to leave the incident in the past.

“It’s all clear. I think it’s all good,” he explained. “It was an unfortunate mistake and it was costly, but it’s all fine.

“We know what we’ve got to do and I think the target is very clear – focusing on the Teams’ Championship, working as a team as well as we can. There aren’t many races left but we’re still in the fight for fifth.

“I think we have a good car and strong pace at the moment. We’ve just got to make the best of the opportunities in the coming weeks.

“In the heat of the moment, you’re running high on adrenaline, you’re running high on emotion, frustration, disappointment. It was a big blow for us as a team, but the only way of going forward is just to get back together and get stronger as a team.

“We’ll need each other to finish in fifth place and we’ll need each other next year. We’ve got to look ahead. He came to apologise – it was an unfortunate mistake.

“Once you're past that line and you brake too late, [you’re] out of control and it was just unfortunate that I was the car that he shunted into. It’s done. I slept on it over a couple of days and now we’re in Malaysia and looking forward.”

Colapinto was similarly optimistic that they could bounce back, which will be crucial in their battle with Racing Bulls to be crowned ‘best of the rest’ – 15 points separate the two teams after Arvid Lindblad finished P7 in Baku.

“I think we handled everything inside and everything is good and positive – looking forward to this race already,” Colapinto said. “I think good chats and difficult moments make us stronger. Hopefully we move on and can have a good weekend here.

“We talked about what we had to talk about. I think especially to make the team stronger after these moments is our goal. When it goes well or [we have] tricky moments, it's important that we stick together and understand what to do better to improve in the future and for it not to happen again.

“I think these moments make us stronger. Hopefully the future is right for us and we can turn the situation around quickly.”