Baku gave us crashes, drama, and approximately 700 reasons to stare at the F1 timeline. Alpine would quite like everyone to calm down now, please.
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix may be over, but the Baku drama has apparently decided to stay for the afterparty. Alpine has issued a statement condeming the “hate and abuse” aimed at members of the Formula 1 community online following Sunday’s fallout from the race.
And, honestly, things escalated fast.
But what actually happened?
Franco Colapinto’s race went spectacularly wrong at the first Safety Car restart. The Alpine driver locked up heading into Turn 1 and went too deep, hitting his teammate Pierre Gasly. Gasly was then sent into Lando Norris, taking all three drivers out of the race.
Not exactly the Alpine group project anyone had in mind.
Colapinto apologised afterwards, accepting responsibility for the crash and saying he had made a big mistake. He was subsequently handed a 10-second penalty, which becomes a five-place grid drop at the Malaysian Grand Prix because he failed to finish in Baku.
Norris, understandably, was not thrilled. The reigning champion said after the race that some drivers “shouldn’t be in F1” and suggested the driver responsible for a crash like that should receive at least a one-race ban.
Cue the internet doing what the internet does best: completely losing the plot.
Alpine has now spoken out against the abuse directed at Colapinto, Norris, and other members of the F1 community following the incident.
The team said that mistakes happen when drivers are racing at the limit, but nobody should be subjected to hateful or abusive comments, regardless of the outcome of a race. It also stressed that its condemnation isn’t aimed at one particular fanbase or group of supporters.
This isn’t the first time Alpine has had to address online abuse this season, either. The team previously released an open letter after incidents earlier in the year involving Colapinto and former Alpine driver Esteban Ocon.
And Alpine isn’t exactly asking everyone to stop arguing about racing.
Healthy debate? Absolutely. Calling out a dodgy move? Go for it.
Having a full-scale meltdown because your favourite driver got taken out? Maybe close the app, babes.
The team says it wants to work with Formula 1 and the FIA to tackle online abuse while encouraging the kind of sporting rivalry that makes F1 so much fun in the first place.
Because you can absolutely be furious about a driver’s move without turning someone’s social media mentions into the Nurburgring of human behaviour. 🫠🏁