Franco Colapinto: I have complete backing from Alpine F1 chief Flavio Briatore

Instead, Colapinto took a direct F1 charter flight from Baku to the UK overnight and was placed in the simulator at the factory right after arriving in the early hours of the following day. It is believed this was not a disciplinary action but a strategy to help him adjust to the time difference in Malaysia ahead of the next race in the triple-header.

On Thursday at Sepang, Colapinto mentioned that a race suspension was never a consideration despite Briatore's anger.

"Not really,” he responded when asked if a substitution with reserve driver Paul Aron had been a potential outcome. "Actually, I went straight to the sim after the race. I was in the factory immediately. Preparing for the race here in Malaysia. Those things never change."

"And our preparation for the future never really changed. Of course, Flavio was upset, and the entire team was frustrated. It's not a pleasant situation to be in, especially being the one responsible for it. It’s the last thing you want as a team.

"It's not a pleasant situation to be in. But we resolved it internally, and they have been completely supportive – eager to move forward quickly.”

Franco Colapinto, Alpine, Lando Norris, McLaren, Pierre Gasly, Alpine

It is understood that while the incident at Turn 1 during the safety car restart in Baku appeared quite awkward on Colapinto's part, data analysis indicated it was a relatively minor error. Colapinto was carrying extra speed due to the slipstream effect and pushed the brakes a bit too hard.

"If you touch the brakes 2-3% too much, you lock the front and you can't stop,” he explained.

"It's pretty straightforward. Everyone experienced a lock-up. It's just that when you're going significantly faster – you suddenly have a lot of energy because you didn't deploy [on the straight, due to the safety car]. We were suddenly hitting 320, 330 [km/h] in a corner that you usually wouldn’t be going that fast.

"Hit your brakes, you lock up. Just another silly mistake that many drivers made. Lando had a lock-up a few laps earlier… Oscar [Piastri] locked up a few laps later at turn 1 as well. I think it’s not something overly complicated to understand. It’s just a lock-up. Of course, it had significant repercussions.”