Flavio Briatore moves on from Franco Colapinto crash: 'I was upset but the past is the past'

Alpine Formula 1 chief Flavio Briatore says his team will move on from Franco Colapinto’s collision with team-mate Pierre Gasly as the squad fights Racing Bulls in the championship.

Colapinto triggered a three-car accident at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, involving Gasly and McLaren’s Lando Norris, with all three drivers retiring from the event. Both Alpine drivers were on for valuable points, but instead the team lost out to Racing Bulls as Arvid Lindblad took seventh.

In the team’s post-race press release, Alpine executive Briatore said he would “take time to reflect on it and consider what course of action should be taken”. But following meetings with team leadership at its Enstone factory, the team is keen to move on from the incident. Its main priority is to catch Racing Bulls in the standings over the remaining eight races, a goal which is best served by focusing on its on-track performance rather than any repercussions for Colapinto causing a distraction.

“Whatever we do is internal to the team,” Briatore said in Malaysia on Friday. “Sure, I was very disappointed with what happened in Baku, but [this is] another race. We need to forget. We need to always look to the future, and the past is the past.

“I was upset, yes, like I believe everybody in the team, including Franco, for the mistake he made. But this is the past. What can we do? Whatever we’ve done, it is impossible to [turn it] back.”

Franco Colapinto, Alpine, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

With Alpine now trailing Racing Bulls by 15 points in the battle for fifth, Briatore is confident the Enstone squad can catch its rival.

“We’re fighting for fifth position with Racing Bulls, we gave away a lot of points,” he added. “But we still have eight races. We have plenty of time.”

Following the Baku incident, Colapinto is carrying a five-place grid penalty in this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix held in Malaysia. Given the Argentinian’s decreased chances of scoring points, Alpine decided to use the Sepang weekend to install a fresh combustion engine in Colapinto’s car, adding 10 places to his grid penalty.
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