Controversial Piastri Penalty Sparks Debate at British GP
Oscar Piastri felt his 10sec penalty in the British Grand Prix was unwarranted – and Max Verstappen had to agree
Oscar Piastri slammed on the anchors under a safety car at Silverstone – to Max Verstappen’s surprise
DPPI
“I’m not going to say too much or I’ll get myself in trouble,” said a hacked off Oscar Piastri after the British GP. “Apparently you can’t brake behind the safety car any more.”
He was referring to his race-losing 10sec penalty for “driving erratically” behind the safety car. This penalty had to be taken at his pitstop and it allowed team-mate Lando Norris to leapfrog past him into the lead and thereafter victory.
“I didn’t do anything different in the restart five laps earlier,” Piastri explained. The FIA document said telemetry revealed he had used 50 bar of brake pressure and decelerated from 135mph to 32mph in a short distance. But it did not mention that on his previous restart he’d decelerated by a similar amount. Furthermore, 50 bar is a fairly normal brake pedal pressure when accelerating and braking behind the safety car when trying to get heat into the brakes and tyres.
Indeed, the main difference between the first restart and the second was Max Verstappen’s reaction to Piastri’s sudden slowing, not the extent of that slowing. At the second restart Verstappen was caught more by surprise as he was in discussion with his race engineer and making switch changes on his steering wheel.
The reason for Piastri braking relatively hard both times was that the safety car lights went out late in the lap, as the pack was heading down Hangar Straight. With so little of the lap remaining to get the gap to the safety car which would allow him to make a competitive restart at his chosen time, he needed to brake hard. The timing of when the safety car’s lights are turned off (signalling that the race will restart) is at the race director’s discretion. It’s unusual to be so late in the lap and the drivers were not expecting it to happen when it did, just adding to the general confusion.
In its timing, the second restart was almost at the same place in the lap – ie: on Hangar Straight. Caught off-guard this time, Verstappen was obliged to overtake Piastri to avoid contact, before then tucking back in behind.
Even Verstappen was surprised at Piastri’s penalty. “This kind of scenario has happened to me a few times,” he said. “I just find it strange that suddenly now Oscar is the first one to receive 10sec for it.”
After being informed of his penalty, Piastri radioed: “I don’t think the penalty before was fair. I know it’s a big question, but if you don’t think it was fair either, I think we should swap back and race.”
This request was not considered on the McLaren pitwall, as it tried to maintain its policy of staying out of the title fight. “I kind of knew it wasn’t going to happen,” he reflected later. “I wanted a small glimmer of hope that maybe I could get it back. I know I deserved more. I drove a really strong race and ultimately when you don’t get the result you think you deserve, it hurts. Especially when it’s not in your control.”