Here's the thing about consistency in the stewards' room: when it vanishes, everyone notices. As RaceFans reports, Alpine are questioning why Arvid Lindblad was left unpenalised for causing a collision during a restart last weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while their own driver Franco Colapinto was slapped with a five-place grid penalty for a remarkably similar incident.
The drama unfolded at a Safety Car restart that completely reshaped the race. Colapinto triggered a collision that wiped out his team mate Pierre Gasly alongside McLaren driver Lando Norris. Right at that exact same moment, Arvid Lindblad was involved in a collision with his own team mate, Liam Lawson. While both Alpine machines were forced into retirement, the Racing Bulls pair managed to continue.
the contact was primarily the result of the restricted space available to Lindblad and the chain reaction caused by the incident ahead
Alpine executive consultant Flavio Briatore made his frustration entirely clear regarding the decision. “I don’t understand,” Briatore said, pointing out the double standard he saw on track. “We are penalised, we deserve to be penalised. I don’t understand why Racing Bulls was not penalised, because Lindblad did exactly the same to Lawson. Why are we penalised and also Lindblad was not penalised?”
The stewards, however, saw a distinct chain of events that let Lindblad off the hook. They officially cleared him because, in their view, “the contact was primarily the result of the restricted space available to Lindblad and the chain reaction caused by the incident ahead” — a chain reaction initiated by Colapinto himself.
At stake here is a very tight and brutal battle for fifth place in the championship standings. Alpine currently sit 15 points behind Racing Bulls. They dropped six points to their direct rivals in Baku, halting momentum that had seen them gain ground on Racing Bulls in each of the previous three rounds.
