Was Oscar Piastri hard done by with ‘harsh’ 10-second penalty?

Oscar Piastri can feel “hard done by” by his 10-second time penalty at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, according to Jamie Chadwick.

McLaren driver Piastri’s fading world championship hopes suffered a further setback in Brazil as he crashed out of the sprint race, before finishing fifth in Sunday’s grand prix after being hit with a penalty.

Piastri was given a 10-second time penalty for colliding with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli at the Lap 6 Safety Car restart. The Australian dived down the inside at Turn 1 but punted Antonelli into the side of Charles Leclerc, who sustained race-ending damage to his Ferrari.

The FIA stewards determined that Piastri was wholly to blame for the incident but the punishment he received has divided opinion, and reopened the debate into F1’s contentious racing guidelines.

"The person that hasn't necessarily used all the room available to him is Kimi, for me. So I'm on the side where I think Oscar has been hard done by,” Sky Sports F1 pundit and three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick said.

"I think Kimi could still maybe have held the position but made Oscar's life easier and not risked that bit of contact in this instance.

“He's not, in my opinion, locked up because he's out of control. He has locked up because he has seen Kimi turning in a bit of him and his natural reaction is to press the brake pedal a little bit harder, turn as much left as you can towards the white line, causing that lock-up.

"But even with the lock-up he's still as far to the white line as he can be and still hasn't been given the room by Kimi.”

Fellow analyst and former F1 driver Karun Chandhok said: ”The only thing is the way the guidelines are at the moment they've looked at it and gone 'well, he wasn't alongside front axle to mirror at the apex'.

“But I think that is a slightly flawed thing to apply here because if Oscar had gone dive-bombing in to try and get to the apex first, as we saw Max doing in Mexico, Antonelli could have then wiped out Leclerc even earlier in the corner.

"I actually think this is where, once again like Mexico, the guidelines don't quite work. I agree with Jamie, it's quite a strong penalty, Maybe a five [second one] because the consequences were bad for the two other cars. So, for me, maybe a five second would have been ok."

Speaking directly in the aftermath of the race and before having the chance to properly review the incident, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella told Sky Sports F1 that "for the moment we respect the decision of the stewards, take it on the chin and move forwards”.

McLaren chief Zak Brown, who was not on the ground in Brazil, described Piastri’s penalty as being “harsh” in a social media post.

Piastri, who has fallen 24 points behind teammate Lando Norris in the title race with three races to go, defended his move and insisted he couldn’t “disappear”.

Meanwhile, Leclerc felt Antonelli was just as much to blame as Piastri.

The stewards’ verdict in full

The stewards deemed that Piastri had not got far enough alongside Antonelli to earn the right to the corner.

"The Stewards reviewed video and in-car video evidence. At the Safety Car restart on Lap 6, Car 81 (Oscar Piastri) attempted to overtake Car 12 (Kimi Antonelli) on the inside of Turn 1,” they stated.

"In doing so, PIA did not establish the required overlap prior to and at the apex, as his front axle was not alongside the mirror of Car 12, as defined in the Driving Standard Guidelines for overtaking on the inside of a corner.

"PIA locked the brakes as he attempted to avoid contact by slowing, but was unable to do so and made contact with ANT.

"This contact caused ANT to make secondary contact with Car 16 (Charles Leclerc), who was positioned on the outside and was forced to retire from the race as a result.

"PIA was therefore wholly responsible for the collision. A 10-second time penalty and two penalty points are considered appropriate and consistent with recent precedents."