Franco Colapinto says Alpine has retained him and is supporting him after he caused a late-race collision at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that cost the team a double points finish. He locked his brakes at a safety car restart in Baku and struck team-mate Pierre Gasly and McLaren driver Lando Norris. Colapinto was found guilty of causing the collision and faces a five-place grid penalty.

The incident prompted speculation that Alpine Formula 1 boss Flavio Briatore might remove Colapinto from the line-up for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Briatore’s post-race comments fuelled the discussion after he said he wanted time to decide how the team should respond. “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,” Briatore said.

Colapinto travelled overnight from Baku to the UK on a direct Formula 1 charter flight. He went to Alpine’s factory in the small hours of the following morning and immediately used its simulator. The trip was understood to be an acclimatisation measure for the time difference in Malaysia, the next stop in the triple-header, rather than a punishment.

Speaking at Sepang on Thursday, Colapinto said he had not expected to be replaced by Alpine reserve driver Paul Aron. Asked whether a substitution had been possible, he replied: “Not really. Actually, I went straight after the race to the sim. I was in the factory straight away. Getting ready for the race here in Malaysia. Those things never change.”

He said the team’s preparation continued as planned, although the crash had upset both Briatore and other team members. “And our prep for the future never really changed. Of course, Flavio was angry and everyone in the team was angry. It’s not a nice situation to be in and even worse to be the one creating that situation. It’s the last thing that you want as a team,” Colapinto said.

He added that the matter had been dealt with within Alpine and that the team was looking ahead. “It’s not a nice situation to be in. But we fixed it internally and they’ve been fully supportive - and willing to look forward very quickly,” he said.

Data analysis indicated that the Turn 1 crash during the Baku safety car restart stemmed from a relatively small error, despite appearing clumsy. Colapinto had more speed because of the slipstream and applied slightly too much braking. He described how little excess pressure was needed to lose control: “Touch the brakes 2-3% too much, you lock the front and you don’t stop,” he said.

Colapinto said drivers were carrying unusually high speed into the corner after not deploying on the straight during the safety car period. “It’s quite simple. Everyone had a lock-up. It’s just in a point where you are running with much more speed - you suddenly have a lot of energy because you didn’t deploy [on the straight, because of the safety car]. We were suddenly doing 320, 330 [km/h] in a corner that maybe you are not [usually] doing as much,” he said.

He said other drivers had locked up at Turn 1 during the race, including Norris a few laps earlier and Oscar Piastri a few laps later. “Touch your brakes, you lock. Just again a silly mistake that a lot of drivers did. Lando had it a few laps before… Oscar [Piastri] locked up a few laps after in turn 1 as well. I think you don’t need to look at it like something very tricky to understand. It’s just a lock-up. Of course it had really big consequences,” Colapinto said.

The source described the next race as the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia and identified Sepang as the Thursday media setting. It also listed photo credit to Michael Potts of LAT Images via Getty Images and included two related Formula 1 headlines: one on Honda’s second F1 ADUO upgrade, secretly introduced in Madrid, and another on Mercedes seeking a 2026 knockout blow and whether its driver fight will reignite.

Based on reporting by Autosport.