Why McLaren think Oscar Piastri’s penalty was “very harsh”

McLaren believe the 10-second penalty which cost Oscar Piastri victory at the British Grand Prix was “very harsh”.

F1 championship leader Piastri was penalised for slowing suddenly ahead of a Safety Car restart at the end of Lap 21 at Silverstone. The Australian was given a 10-second penalty, which saw him lose victory to McLaren teammate Lando Norris.

McLaren feel aggrieved by the decision, with team principal Andrea Stella insisting the stewards failed to take several factors into account.

"I have to say that the penalty still looks very harsh," Stella said. "There's a few factors that we would like the stewards to take into account.

"First of all, the safety car was pulled in very late, not leaving much time for the leader to actually restart in conditions in which you lose higher temperature, you lose brake temperature and the same goes for everyone. The 50 bar [brake pressure], it's a pressure that you see during the safety car when you do some braking and acceleration.

"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 race craft of some competitors, definitely there's also the ability to make others look like they are causing severe infringement when they are not.

"So, a few things to review, but in itself now the penalty has been decided, has been served and we move on. We will see if there's anything to learn on our side, and I'm sure Oscar will use this motivation for being even more determined for the races to come and trying to win as many races as possible.”

Explaining the incident from his side, Piastri, whose championship lead has been whittled down to eight point, said: "I hit the brakes. At the same time I did that, the lights on the safety car went out, which was also extremely late [around the lap].

"And then obviously, I didn't accelerate because I can control the pace from there. And, yeah, you saw the result. I didn't do anything differently to my first restart. I didn't go any slower. I didn't do anything differently.”

Why did the stewards punish Piastri?

The stewards’ statement read: "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 218 kph (135 mph) to 52 kph (32 mph), resulting in Car 1 having to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

"This momentarily resulted in Car 1 unavoidably overtaking Car 81, a position which he gave back immediately. Article 55.15 of the FIA Sporting Regulations required Car 81 to proceed at a pace which involved no erratic braking nor any other manoeuvre which is likely to endanger other drivers from the point at which the lights on the safety car are turned off. What Car 81 did was clearly a breach of that article.”

Red Bull’s Christian Horner felt Piastri’s penalty was justified and was left frustrated that Mercedes’ George Russell escaped punishment for a similar incident at the Canadian Grand Prix.

However, Max Verstappen, who spun at the Safety Car restart and dropped down the order before fighting back to finish fifth, felt the penalty was “extreme”.

"It's happened to me a few times now, of course, that people do that to me," the four-time world champion told Viaplay.

"Only I only heard after the race that he got 10 seconds for that. Of course, that's very extreme again, a 10-second penalty. But yes, I don't make the rules."