Lando Norris says sorry to F1 star for calling for him to be banned following heavy crash in Baku… and admits: ‘I’ve made mistakes of my own during the years’
Lando Norris has apologised to Franco Colapinto for ‘wrongly’ demanding that the Argentine should be banned from Formula One for crashing into him at last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Colapinto made a reckless move down the inside of the first corner after the withdrawal of the safety car in Baku. He smashed into his Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly, who then tagged Norris, putting them out of the race in a massive dent to the Briton’s championship defence.
Norris copped a huge backlash on social media from Colapinto fans with severe abuse coming his way. Now, however, he has rethought his comments over the one-race ban he argued for.
He said on Instagram: ‘Tough weekend overall in Baku and of course a disappointing and early end to the race.
‘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.
Lando Norris was furious after being forced out of the Grand Prix due to the crash
Norris ended in the barriers after a pile-up caused by Alpine’s Franco Colapinto
‘Franco and I came to a good understanding, are still good friends and are both excited to get back racing this weekend (in Malaysia).’
Norris’s retirement leaves him 116 points behind Mercedes’ leader Kimi Antonelli with eight rounds remaining.
In the heat of his exclusion, Norris had said: ‘If you cause a crash on a restart like this, you should have at least a one-race ban.
‘It is just careless. It costs a lot of money, all my parts are in the bin now. It is not driving that deserves to be in Formula One.
‘You want to be against the best drivers and when stuff like this happens it is because, yeah, they shouldn’t be there.’
