Piastri penalty decision potentially influenced by rivals ‘making it looks worse’ – McLaren

McLaren believe the stewards’ decision to penalise Oscar Piastri was potentially influenced by rivals exaggerating their reactions to his driving.

Piastri incurred a 10-second time penalty when the stewards ruled he braked unnecessarily heavily at the end of a Safety Car period, leading Max Verstappen to overtake him briefly.

The incident drew comparisons to a similar situation at the Canadian Grand Prix last month where George Russell slowed while leading the Safety Car queue and Verstappen also temporarily passed him. On that occasion no penalty was issued.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said “the penalty still looks very harsh” after reviewing footage of it after yesterday’s race. “There are a few factors that we would have liked the stewards to take into account.

“First of all, the Safety Car was called in very late, not leaving much time for the leader to actually restart, in conditions in which you lose tyre temperature, you lose brake temperature, and the same was for everyone.”

The stewards said Piastri applied an excessive braking force of 59psi when he slowed. However Stella maintained “it’s pressure that you see during a Safety Car when you do some braking and acceleration.”

He also suggested other drivers had exaggerated how suddenly they had to slow down in reaction to Piastri. “We’ll have to see also if other competitors kind of made the situation look worse than what it is,” he said. “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.

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“So there’s a few things to review. But in itself now the penalty has been decided, has been served, and we move on. I think 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 try and win as many races as possible in the future.

McLaren wanted the stewards to judge the situation after the race. “What we said during the race was that we thought it was appropriate to discuss after the race because I think we should have checked in detail the opinion of the drivers involved and we should have checked why the Safety Car was called in so late and then put together all the elements such that the decision could be as fair as possible.”

Red Bull made an unsuccessful attempt to protest Russell’s driving in Canada. The stewards cleared the Mercedes driver.

However Horner believes the Silverstone situation showed Russell should have been penalised in Montreal. “I wasn’t surprised to see [Piastri] get a penalty,” he said. “That was what you would expect.

“It was probably more surprising that George didn’t get one in Montreal, to be honest.”

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