Flavio Briatore says Alpine have drawn a line under Franco Colapinto’s costly mistake in Baku, and he only wants to talk about what comes next. Speaking at Friday’s Team Principal Press Conference at the Sepang International Circuit, he made clear that however Alpine have handled the fallout, it will stay behind closed doors, according to Crash.net’s report of his media comments.
The Briatore Baku comments were his first extended remarks since Colapinto collided with teammate Pierre Gasly at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and they set the tone Alpine want for the rest of the season: no looking back.
Primary Source Attribution & Official Details
“Whatever we do is internal to the team,” Briatore said, when asked how Alpine had dealt with the fallout from Baku, according to Crash.net’s report.
He admitted the incident had stung at the time. “Sure, I was very disappointed when it happened in Baku, but it’s another race. Everybody forgets, you know,” he said.
Briatore was just as blunt about the mood in the garage afterwards. “I was upset, yes, like I believe everybody in the team was, including Franco, for the mistake he made. But this is the past,” he told reporters, before adding that “we need to keep looking always for the future, and the past is the past, and nothing can be done.”
He was firm that nothing could change what had already happened. “After that, it’s finito. What can we do? Whatever we’ve done, it’s impossible to come back,” Briatore said.
Squad Impact & Tactical Context
Colapinto’s error in Baku was an expensive one for Alpine. Taking out Gasly turned a potential points finish into nothing for either car, at a time when the team can’t afford to give points away. We covered the warning signs before the race in our Colapinto Baku report, and Briatore’s tone on Friday showed just how much that weekend cost Alpine in the standings.
He was clear about what it means for the championship fight. “Last weekend was not nice for us at all, and we are fighting for the fifth position with Racing Bulls. We give away a lot of points,” he said, according to Crash.net.
Briatore then widened the conversation to the stewarding decisions that followed Baku. He questioned why Racing Bulls escaped punishment after Arvid Lindblad made contact with Liam Lawson in a separate incident, pointing to the similarity with Alpine’s own penalty. “I don’t understand why Racing Bull was not penalised, because Lindblad had done exactly the same to Lawson,” he said. “Why were we penalised and Lindblad was not penalised?”
For a team already short on points in the fight for fifth, every stewarding call carries extra weight. Briatore’s frustration suggests Alpine feel they’re judged more harshly than their rivals, even if he framed it as a question rather than an accusation. It comes as Alpine continue to manage Colapinto’s long-term place at the team, a situation we touched on in our Alpine deadline update.
What Happens Next / Upcoming Timeline
Briatore was keen to point Alpine straight back towards the job in hand. “We need to go ahead and think about the future, talking about the race today, the qualifying tomorrow, and the race on Sunday. And every race is a different scenario,” he said.
That leaves Alpine needing a strong result this weekend at Sepang if they’re to close the gap on Racing Bulls in the battle for fifth. The Briatore Baku comments make his priorities obvious: not relitigating last weekend, but turning this weekend into points on the board. With qualifying and the race still to come, Alpine know there’s little time left to dwell on what’s already gone.
