Formula 1 in Baku: McLaren disaster and fuss over Norris' demand for a racing ban

When a Formula 1 team titles their email about the race with “A day to forget,” then you know that something didn’t go as planned. This is what happened to the reigning constructors' world champion McLaren at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. Oscar Piastri crossed the finish line in 14th place and thus ended up outside the points. Things were even worse for the world champion himself.

After a safety car restart, Lando Norris was involved in an accident through no fault of his own and retired on the 35th lap. Franco Colapinto crashed into his Alpine colleague Pierre Gasly in the first corner. And had pushed the Frenchman's car into Norris's. All three were unable to finish the race.

For Norris, who is now 116 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), it is the end of all dreams of defending his title. Accordingly, he was annoyed during the interviews after the end of the race: "I was pushed out. By drivers who shouldn't be in Formula 1." And made a demand to the world association: “The FIA ​​should sanction such driving and ban him.”

This demand was not well received by his competitors. Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, who placed second in Baku, said: "It's unfortunate, but things like that happen. He is aware of his mistake and has apologized. A race ban is a bit excessive."

“Small mistakes, big consequences”

Winner George Russell (Mercedes) agreed: "It was a small mistake that had a big impact. Personally, I believe that race bans should only be imposed when drivers deliberately do something very dangerous and very reckless."

In the evening, the FIA ​​race stewards punished the Argentinian - not with a race ban, but with a time penalty of 10 seconds. These will be converted into a move back five places on the grid at the race in Malaysia next Sunday.

The shitstorm against Norris has already begun on the Internet. Some of Franco Colapinto's fans are known to be aggressive and ruthless. Most recently they threatened Pierre Gasly after an incident in Madrid. So bad that Alpine boss Flavio Briatore took a drastic step: He announced that Colapinto would no longer be allowed to give interviews to the Argentine media if the attacks continued.