Reigning World Champion Lando Norris has admitted that it was ‘wrong of him’ to make the comments he did about the Argentinian driver following the conclusion of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Franco Colapinto stormed up the inside of his teammate and Norris at the safety car restart in Baku, ending all three drivers’ races. He has since been handed a five-place grid penalty for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
After the race, Norris told the media, “I think the FIA should be more strict and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff. It’s careless from people. Costs a lot of money. All my parts are in the bin now, so yeah, people should just get banned because that’s not driving that deserves to be in Formula 1.”
The Brit has since faced backlash for his ‘harsh’ comments, particularly from Argentinians, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero getting involved on social media.
However, Norris has since responded with the following message on his Instagram story:
“Tough weekend overall in Baku and of course a disappointing and early end to the race.
After the race, I sent Franco a message apologising for the comments made that I simply should not have said. Iknow better and emotions were running high but that is not an excuse, it was wrong of me. I’ve made mistakes of my own over the years and I know this is very much a part of racing and fighting on the limit.
Me and Franco came to a good understanding, are still good friends and are both excited to get back racing this weekend.”
The 2026 Formula 1 season continues this weekend with the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, as the sport makes its long-awaited return to the Sepang International Circuit.
