Franco Colapinto should be banned for one race, Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris said after he was hit by the Alpine driver at a restart behind the safety car in Baku. The McLaren driver was eliminated and remains 116 points behind championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
"If you cause a crash at a restart like that, you should be banned for at least one race", Norris said, quoted by DPA.
"The FIA should be stricter with imposing penalties for things like this. It's just a lack of attention. They cost money and all my parts are in the bin now. This is not a driving style that should exist in Formula 1. Here, drivers have to expect low grip at low tyre temperatures. You can't want to drive with the best and have accidents like this," the world champion continued.
Colapinto will indeed be penalised for the next round, but not with a complete absence, but most likely with a loss of six grid positions. He was penalised with 10 seconds for the crash with Norris and he didn't suffer them in Azerbaijan, so this will happen in eight days in Malaysia.
Asked about Norris' appeal, winner George Russell said: "This is too big a penalty. At a restart behind the safety car, the tyres are still cold and every little mistake has serious consequences. We saw that today. Race-wide penalties should be imposed on drivers who deliberately do something extremely dangerous".