Norris urges ban on Colapinto after restart crash at Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Lando Norris said Franco Colapinto should be banned after Colapinto caused a restart accident at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on 26 September 2026 that took out Norris and Pierre Gasly and led to the retirement of three cars.

The incident began when Colapinto locked up his brakes at Turn One and slid into his team-mate Pierre Gasly, who then struck Norris, producing a chain reaction that ended the involvement of all three cars. Colapinto apologised, saying: "I can be sorry to everyone. It's been a big mistake, of course. I just locked up and then I was very out of control." All three drivers left the race as a result of the contact.

Norris demanded stronger sanctions from the sport's governing body, telling BBC Radio 5 Live: "Give him a ban. It's quite simple." He added: "The FIA should be more strict 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, so people should just get banned for this kind of driving. (They) don't deserve to be in Formula 1. "If you cause a crash on a restart like this, yeah, you should have at least a one-race ban."

Race winner George Russell and second-placed Max Verstappen disagreed with a ban as a penalty. Mercedes' Russell said: "That's too harsh. Safety car restarts, cold tyres, a very small mistake can have big consequences. And from what I saw today, that's what it looked like. It was a small error that had a big consequence. Race bans should come from drivers intentionally doing something very dangerous and very reckless." Red Bull's Verstappen added: "As long as the driver that caused it is aware of what he did, right, and apologised... It's not nice. Not nice for anyone involved, right? But like George said, a race ban probably is a bit much."

Colapinto was handed a 10-second penalty in the race; because he had already retired, that sanction will be converted into a grid drop for the next event. The size of the grid penalty "has not been confirmed, but it is likely to be in the order of five places."

Both Alpine cars had been in contention to score points before the collision, running seventh and 10th prior to the contact. Arvid Lindblad finished seventh and that result extended Racing Bulls' gap over Alpine in the fight for fifth place in the constructors' championship to 15 points. Gasly said he was "crushed" by the incident and added: "We're all very disappointed with the outcome after such a strong weekend, strong race," the Frenchman said. "It's still difficult to process what just happened."

A McLaren spokesperson said it was too early to say whether the incident would mean Norris would not be able to use the upgraded parts the team debuted in Baku at the race in Malaysia, and Colapinto's 10-second penalty will be converted into a grid drop at the next race, the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, next weekend.