The disappointment of Franco Colapinto was evident after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Argentine had to retire from the race after losing control of his Alpine during the restart following the Safety Car and ended up crashing into his teammate, Pierre Gasly.
The situation was a heavy blow for Alpine, which had both of its cars in the points zone before the incident. After retiring from the race, Colapinto spoke and immediately took responsibility.
“I locked up when I started braking and was out of control the entire braking zone, there wasn’t much I could do. Sorry to the team and to Pierre for a big and serious mistake because we lost a lot of points with both cars,” Colapinto acknowledged.
Colapinto's first retirement with Alpine
The accident ended a long streak for the Argentine. Colapinto had completed 30 consecutive races, not counting last season's British Grand Prix, where he did not start.
His previous retirement dated back to the 2024 Abu Dhabi GP, when he was still competing for Williams. Therefore, the incident in Baku marked his first DNF with Alpine.
Up until the moment of the accident, the Argentine had started from ninth position and had managed to stay there, although he was later overtaken by Kimi Antonelli.
Gasly had been faster than Colapinto in Baku
The performance of the two Alpine drivers also showed a difference compared to what happened two weeks earlier. While Colapinto had been clearly superior to Gasly on that occasion, in Baku the Frenchman managed to set a considerably more competitive pace.
During the final part of the stint on medium tires, before entering the pits due to the Safety Car caused by Alex Albon's accident, Gasly was able to lap between eight tenths and a second per lap faster than his teammate.
Colapinto, for his part, explained that he had started to suffer greater degradation on the rear tires and that this had affected his pace during the race.
Colapinto's message after the accident
Despite the negative result, the Argentine emphasized that his priority was to take responsibility to Alpine and Gasly. The accident left the team without points when both cars were in a position to score.
“It was a complicated day that had been quite good, sorry to the whole team. I didn’t have much pace, I started to have degradation in the rear, it became quite difficult for me. Still, the important thing is the apologies to the team and to Pierre. We will try to turn it around,” he concluded.
