Oscar Piastri cut a dejected figure after a 10-second time penalty lost him the British Grand Prix to McLaren team-mate and championship rival Lando Norris.
The Australian was adjudged to have braked “erratically” under the safety car on lap 22, which forced the chasing Red Bull of Max Verstappen to take evasive action on Silverstone’s Hangar Straight, overtaking Piastri in the process. Championship leader Piastri was as downbeat as we have ever seen him in his three seasons in Formula One, having ceded more ground to Norris. McLaren, meanwhile, believe the penalty to be “very harsh”, even after viewing the incident in further depth.
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Indeed, team principal Andrea Stella even suggested that there could have been an element of Verstappen trying to effectively buy Piastri a penalty. Stella was nearly 20 minutes late to his scheduled post-race press conference, he said, because he wanted to examine the incident further. He defended his driver’s actions and questioned the penalty.
“I just wanted to take another look after the initial look that we took live, during the race. I have to say that the penalty still looks very harsh,” Stella said. “There’s a few factors that we would have liked the stewards to take into account.
“First of all, the safety car was called in very late, not leaving much time for the leader to actually restart in conditions that you lose tyre temperature, you lose brake temperature – and the same was for everyone.”
“We’ll have to see also if other competitors kind of made the situation look worse than what it is. Because we know that as part of the racecraft of some competitors, there’s also the ability to make others look like they are causing a severe infringement when they are not.”
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What happened on Sunday was vaguely reminiscent of an incident in the Canadian Grand Prix in June. Under the safety car in Montreal, leader George Russell was accused of braking erratically with Verstappen behind, just like Piastri did. Red Bull were unhappy, claiming that Russell slammed on the brakes to try to get Verstappen penalised for overtaking under the safety car. The FIA dismissed this protest and Russell kept his victory.
It appeared to be this that Verstappen was referring to when he said he was surprised that Piastri had been punished.
“The thing is that it’s happened to me now a few times, this kind of scenario,” he said. “I just find it strange that suddenly now Oscar is the first one to receive 10 seconds for it.”
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According to Piastri, what happened was that he did the same as he had on previous laps under the safety car – braking in order to generate tyre and brake temperature.
Either way, it seemed that the Australian slowed down sharply on the straight, with Verstappen having to dive to the right to avoid a potential collision. In doing so he went ahead of Piastri, but immediately slowed to slot back into second.
In his immediate post-race interview Piastri refused to give any explanation on his feelings other than that he profoundly disagreed with the decision. “Apparently you can’t brake behind the safety car any more. I did it for five laps before. Thanks to the crowd for a great event. Thanks for sticking through the weather. I still like Silverstone even if I don’t like it today.”
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When asked to compare the incident to Russell and Verstappen’s in Canada, he said the claimed lack of consistency made him “confused”. Stella meanwhile, stopped short of criticising the stewarding at Silverstone, but said that McLaren would “keep the dialogue going” with the FIA, who he said did a “difficult job”.
The FIA stewards were clear in their verdict in awarding Piastri a 10-second penalty. Indeed, the incident looked clear cut on initial viewing. The information in the FIA’s statement does little to undermine that, in fact reinforcing it.
“When the clerk of the course had declared that the safety car was coming in that lap and the lights were extinguished, Car 81 suddenly braked hard (59.2 PSI of brake pressure) and reduced speed in the middle of the straight between T14 and T15, from 218kph to 52kph, resulting in Car 1 having to take evasive action to avoid a collision,” their judgment read. “This momentarily resulted in Car 1 unavoidably overtaking Car 81, a position which he gave back immediately.”
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What appears to be at the root of the actions of both Piastri and Verstappen is the safety car’s lights being extinguished suddenly and, clearly, unexpectedly. It meant Piastri did one thing – slowed down suddenly on the Hangar Straight – and Verstappen did not follow.
It is fair that the lead driver sets the pace once the safety car comes in, but there are limits to this. Piastri went too far, beyond what should be expected and accepted in this situation. It is worse when you consider the damp conditions with the pack bunched up and spray cascading from the front to the back.
Was Piastri trying to buy a penalty for Verstappen? Unlikely. Was Verstappen trying to do the same for his rival? He is not averse to pushing the limits, but again, this was not the case here. The blame should be placed firmly with the Australian. He has a right to be disappointed, but that feeling should be turned inwards rather than outwards.
