Passionate argument that Oscar Piastri offence "innocuous", penalty was “harsh”

A former F1 driver has laid bare his argument that Oscar Piastri should not have been punished so severely at the British Grand Prix.

Piastri was handed a 10-second time penalty when leading the race at Silverstone for braking under Safety Car conditions, forcing Max Verstappen to evade him.

The McLaren driver, who led the championship, was forced to watch teammate and title rival Lando Norris win the grand prix.

Piastri cut a frustrated figure afterwards but has now found someone who agrees.

“I don’t think he has done anything extraordinarily wrong,” Jolyon Palmer told the F1 Nation podcast.

“He obviously backed up the field on the Safety Car restart. He hit reasonable brake pressure to slow the car down.

“I just don’t see it as a major moment.

“He did exactly the same thing four laps before which actually almost caused more drama further back in the field. Nico Hulkenberg had to take avoiding action.

“The FIA didn’t even look at it. They reportedly weren’t best pleased and were debating whether to. But fundamentally they didn’t.

“To then give quite a significant penalty, four laps later, for something which to me looked innocuous? It’s harsh.

“We have been following this sport for a long time. Can you remember a single penalty for this infringement before? I can’t.”

Palmer added: “I can’t remember a single driver being pinged for this.

“So for Oscar to lose a race win for something which caused no real drama - I know Max overtook him but they sorted themselves out.

“There wasn’t bad intent, there was nothing gained. I have never seen anyone penalised for it in the past.

“Then he loses a British Grand Prix win? I can feel his frustration.”

George Russell in Canada?

After George Russell won the F1 Canadian Grand Prix, Red Bull protested that he had driven erratically under Safety Car conditions. The appeal was dismissed.

It emerged that Russell braked at approximately half of the PSI that Piastri braked at for his offence at the British Grand Prix.

But Palmer again leapt to the defence of the McLaren driver.

“He didn’t brake as hard as he could, that’s clear. I looked at the data,” Palmer said.

“He continually braked at 60 PSI, it is not an extraordinary amount.

“He did it for every lap at the same point. It is not shocking.

Formula 1 cars can brake more than double that. I know George braked less, but it’s irrelevant, for an incident that was not punished.

“Max, before, was braking at 60 PSI and was able to stop.”

Piastri still leads the F1 standings above his teammate Norris by eight points.

The Belgian Grand Prix next weekend is the next race of the 2025 season.