Oscar Piastri voices concern after Charles Leclerc escapes Spa sanction

Oscar Piastri was unsure whether Charles Leclerc deserved a penalty after the pair clashed at the Belgian Grand Prix, but believes there is a minimum course of action that the stewards should have taken.

Using overtake mode and deploying plenty of battery power, Piastri pulled alongside Leclerc on the run to Les Combes on lap eight of Sunday's Formula 1 race. Attempting a move that was seen to be successful through a number of other drivers across the 44-lap duration, the Australian was denied racing room as Leclerc pulled across, squeezing Piastri onto the kerb, which resulted in contact between the two drivers and damage to the McLaren.

With the stewards having already handed Lewis Hamilton a harsh penalty for lap one contact with George Russell at the same corner, there was an expectation that a similar five-second sanction would be dished out this time around. However, the stewards deemed that no further action was required, detailing: "Although Car 81 had achieved some overlap with Car 16, its front axle was not ahead of the front axle of Car 16. From the stewards' perspective, there was no realistic possibility of Car 81 completing the overtake from that position."

While hesitant to completely disregard the stewards' decision, Piastri said: “From where I was sat, I was on the white line and got squeezed. I think we were both very lucky not to have a bigger crash, because we touched wheels at the start of the braking zone, basically. 

“I don't really know where I was supposed to go. So, the fact that it was no [further action]... I'm not saying it needed to be a penalty necessarily, but at least a black-and-white flag or something like that.

“If we think that that's fine, it's one thing having touches like that, but even just the incentive of knowing that you can leave everyone the absolute bare minimum space, and get away with it, it's not the nicest place to go.”

A black and white flag is the 'last warning' for a driver, indicating that a further infraction will result in a penalty. Most commonly, this is handed out due to track limits violations.

Piastri had a new nose fitted during his stop, repairing the damage with his pace subsequently returning. 

After finishing in fifth place, he added: “I mean, the first stint, I think the damage was a big player, because I lost a decent bit of downforce, but it impacted the balance of the car a fair bit. So I was struggling a lot from then on until we could change the front wing and compensate a little bit. 

“I think the second stint looked a fair bit better. Just once Lewis got ahead, the car was tricky to drive in clean air. And once Lewis got ahead and I was in the heavy following, it was incredibly tough again, and once I kind of dropped back a second and a half or 2 seconds, the pace stabilised again. 

“But then even so, the car was still damaged, so I think that was definitely a factor. But I agree that we looked very competitive at the start of the stints and maybe not quite as good at the end.”