Alpine boss, Flavio Briatore, is to consider what action should be taken following Franco Colapinto's costly Baku clash.

Costly, not only in terms of the damage incurred by both Alpine and McLaren, just days before the next race, but because it robbed the French team of a potential double-points finish as it battles Racing Bulls for fifth in the Constructors' Championship.

"These sort of incidents shouldn't happen, particularly when we were running well with both cars in point-scoring positions," said Briatore in the team's post-race press release.

"I know that Franco has taken full responsibility for it, as he should," he added, "he braked far too late considering the context of the race and the safety car restart.

"It was a very poor move for a driver of his experience. 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 the future.

The Argentine, deemed wholly responsible by the stewards, heads to Sepang with a 5-place grid drop, however it remains to be seen if Alpine will add its own punishment, a situation which had social media buzzing throughout the night.

"Just sorry to all the team, not only to Pierre, it was a big mistake," said a contrite Colapinto. "Big sorry to Pierre, he has been working really hard in the factory. We lost a lot of positions and we were with both cars in the points.

"Very sad and disappointed," he added. "Big, big sorry, it's a big mistake. Cold brakes, cold tyres, I was completely out of control. Unfortunately, I also took Pierre out. And Lando of course. Big sorry to both of them."

"I'm trying to find my words," an emotional Gasly told Sky Sports. "It's not easy.

"We did a very good weekend and the car was one of the best race cars we've had this season," he continued. "The pace was great. I was keeping up with Lewis and Lando for most of the race. And we had, I think, 14 or 15 second gap to the midfield. So I think a lot of positives to take away.

"But I'm still struggling to process the outcome and the fact that we had both cars in the points and in the end we get outscored by Racing Bulls by a lot of points. So not an ideal day.

"I'm sure we're going to move on from it. Unfortunately, we've lost out today. And hopefully we can make it up until the end of the year."

"It is just careless," said Norris. "It costs a lot of money, all my parts are in the bin now," he added, McLaren having brought another raft of upgrades to Baku. "It is not driving that deserves to be in Formula 1."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Baku here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Celtic Tiger, 7 hours ago

"I find it amusing how a lot of people are essentially tip-toeing around the "what to do about Colapinto" issue. Precisely because of his unhinged fanbase. It just goes to show how off-their-heads those lot are that everyone (bar Norris) are being very diplomatic about it because they don't want to have to deal with them or having their family and friends put through the death threats and abuse. Ol' Norris best be checking under his McLaren before he starts it for the next few weeks.
Kidding aside, that was one crazy dive bomb and it begs the question, what is Colapinto bringing to the sport? I know what he's bringing to Alpine, a truckload of cash but he's not mesmerizing anyone with his driving and in terms of the level a Formula 1 driver should be expected to be at, Norris is right, I think clearly he falls short of it."

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Briatore mulls reaction to Colapinto calamity

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