Lando Norris called for Franco Colapinto to receive a race ban. Three of his F1 2026 peers believe that request goes too far.
Colapinto instigated a multi-car collision at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix which included Norris. The reigning world champion felt that was worthy of a one-race ban. George Russell, Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar all disagreed after watching the incident in the post-race cooldown room. Hadjar presented an interesting theory regarding the true culprit behind that crash.
Lando Norris ‘race ban’ call meets scrutiny
Colapinto locked-up into Turn 1 at the Safety Car restart. He cleaned out the sister Alpine driven by Pierre Gasly, while Norris was punted into retirement in the process.
“I think the FIA should be more strict and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff,” Norris told PlanetF1.com and others.
“It’s just careless from people. Costs a lot of money. All my parts are in the bin now. People should just get banned, because that’s not driving that deserves to be in Formula 1.”
Norris admitted that he had not yet watched the incident back, but doubled down on his call for “at least a one-race ban” to come the Argentine’s way.
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was eventually won by Russell, with a margin of 0.1s over Verstappen at the line. Hadjar made it a double Red Bull podium upon return from injury.
Among the race highlights shown to that trio in the cooldown room was the crash involving Colapinto, Gasly and Norris. They were informed, in the subsequent press conference, of Norris’ race ban request, and asked if they agreed.
“I think that’s too harsh, personally,” said Russell.
“I think Safety Car restarts, cold tyres, a very small mistake can have big consequences. From what I saw today, that’s what it looked like. It was a small error that had a big consequence.
“I think, personally, race bans should should come from drivers intentionally doing something very dangerous and very reckless. So I think it was unfortunate.”
Verstappen added: “I think as long as the driver that causes it is aware of what he did, right, and apologised.
“I mean, that happens. A small mistake or misjudgement, you lock-up, it’s on the inside, low grip… It’s unfortunate that it involved so many cars. But unfortunately, it happens.
“It’s not nice. I think not nice for anyone involved, right. But like George said, I think a race ban probably is a bit much.”
Hadjar pointed the finger at the Baku City Circuit, rather than any driver involved.
Formula 1 has been visiting the venue since 2016.
“My side, I think the track is not good enough,” he stated. “You move out of the racing lines, it starts to be very bumpy. It’s hard to generate temperature behind the Safety Car. It’s going quite slowly. So then you just overdo it, and that has big, big consequences.
“So I think a race ban is way too harsh.”
Latest Azerbaijan GP analysis on PlanetF1.com
Azerbaijan GP 2026 Driver Ratings: Near perfection and the ultimate motorsport sin
The stewards hit Colapinto with a 10-second penalty for causing the collision. That has been converted into a five-place grid drop for the next race which he participates in.
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Originally published by Planet F1 —
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