The 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: A Meditation on Mistakes

If there is one place on the Formula One calendar that is uniquely qualified to hold a conversation about mistakes, it’d be Baku.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix has never been particularly interested in subtle errors. Mistakes here tend to arrive loudly, usually accompanied by carbon fiber, a concrete wall, and a radio message that is immortalized in the Formula One fandom.

You probably thought of Charles Leclerc’s infamous “I am stupid” remark after putting his Ferrari into the Turn 8 barriers back in 2019, didn’t you? Daniel Ricciardo running into the back of Max Verstappen in 2018 might be another incident that came to mind. And then there was that shocking podium fight between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Pérez that culminated in two cars in the wall back in 2024.

The streets of Baku, needless to say, have seen their fair share of mistakes and mishaps, which makes what happened during the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix particularly interesting.

On the Safety Car restart, Franco Colapinto, who had locked up on cold tires and brakes, collided with Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly. The resulting accident also took out Lando Norris, eliminating all three. Colapinto immediately accepted responsibility, calling it a “big mistake.” Norris, on the other hand, had a different take.

Speaking immediately after the race, the McLaren driver suggested there are “some drivers that shouldn’t be in F1” and argued for at least a one-race ban for that kind of incident. Colapinto, by the way, did receive a 10-second penalty that resulted in a five-place grid drop because he had retired.

Then the internet did what it does, and the backlash quickly escalated into abuse directed at the Alpine driver.

By Monday, Norris had reconsidered. He said he had messaged Colapinto privately, apologized for what he had said, and acknowledged something important: he has made mistakes himself. They are, as he put it, part of racing and fighting at the limit.

This whole thing, of course, piqued my curiosity, and a question naturally arose:

When does a mistake get to be a mistake?

Let’s walk through Baku’s history, which offers quite the sample size.

Leclerc’s 2019 qualifying crash ruined his own opportunity. Ricciardo and Verstappen’s 2018 collision ruined Red Bull’s afternoon and earned both drivers reprimands. Sainz and Pérez’s 2024 incident erased two potential podium finishes. And then there’s the Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton incident back in 2017, though a different kind of example, when Vettel pulled alongside Hamilton behind the Safety Car and deliberately made contact after believing that Hamilton had brake-tested him. Vettel received a subsequent 10-second stop-go penalty for dangerous driving.

Formula One has an entire system to address mistakes: time penalties, drive-through penalties, stop-go penalties, grid drops, reprimands, and Super Licence penalty points. Gain enough of those points, and the punishment Norris initially suggested does come to fruition — just ask Kevin Magnussen, who demonstrated that rather neatly in 2024.

After accumulating 12 penalty points within a 12-month period, Magnussen triggered an automatic one-race suspension and missed, funny enough, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. It wasn’t one incident that removed him from a race weekend, but a series of incidents that culminated in his ban.

There’s a big difference between a driver locking a tire, missing a braking point, or badly misjudging a move and a driver displaying a recurring pattern of dangerous on-track behavior.

None of this excuses Colapinto’s mistake. He did take out his teammate, wipe out another driver, and cost Alpine what had been shaping up to be a double-points finish. A penalty was absolutely called for.

But Formula One drivers do make mistakes. Past, present, and future world champions make them. Veterans and rookies alike make them. Sometimes those mistakes affect only the driver, and sometimes they spill onto others.

And street circuits like Monaco, Melbourne, and Singapore have a habit of making them all look spectacular. There is no forgiving runoff area waiting to quietly absorb an error in Baku’s castle section. The difference between a brilliant lap and a meme-worthy incident is only a few centimeters between a car and the wall.

That is worth remembering for the drivers in the immediate aftermath of a ruined race, and for the rest of us watching from considerably safer positions.

Dangerous driving should absolutely be punished, and patterns of it should be taken seriously. Formula One has a system in place for exactly that. But the next time someone locks up, misjudges a move, or finds a wall in Baku and elsewhere, perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to question their place in Formula One. Sometimes, a mistake is simply a mistake.