‘I deserved more': Oscar Piastri's Silverstone penalty dents F1 title cushion

New York Times

15 hours ago

SILVERSTONE, UK — The 2025 British Grand Prix is a case of 'what could have been' for Oscar Piastri.
He thrives in high-speed corners, which Silverstone is known for, and the McLaren driver was cruising when he took the lead from Max Verstappen. With his bigger rear wing and extra downforce in the wet, he was able to keep tighter racing lines compared to the polesitter, and it was only a matter of time before Piastri passed the four-time world champion.
Advertisement
But then came the intense rain and a safety car that neutralized the race, erasing the big lead Piastri was building.
Piastri was patient behind the safety car and was again after Isack Hadjar slammed into Kimi Antonelli on the first restart lap. Being the race leader, once the safety car lights go out and it heads to the pits, Piastri would dictate the pace and decide when racing action would resume.
But at this stage of the second restart, while the pack was navigating the Hangar Straight, Verstappen suddenly lurched next to Piastri before falling back in line, saying over the radio, 'Woah, mate, Jesus! He just suddenly again slows down.'
Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, responded: 'He basically stopped on track.'
A post shared by FORMULA 1® (@f1)
The moment was enough to trigger a rapid stewards' investigation, which resulted in a 10-second penalty that the McLaren driver served later in the race, dropping him to second place, allowing teammate Lando Norris to win his home grand prix. Piastri was left dejected.
It was a chance to build a gap in the championship standings after Norris won last time out in Austria. Ultimately, Piastri felt he 'was well within the rules.' But because of that penalty, his lead in the world championship standings at the 2025 season's halfway stage sits at just eight points.
'Apparently you can't brake behind the safety car anymore,' the Australian driver said. 'I mean, I did it for five laps before that. I'm not going (to) say too much or I'll get myself in trouble.'
The stewards reviewed the evidence, which ranges from video to team radio messages and car telemetry data, and determined that Piastri did indeed brake — hard.
When the safety car's lights went out, the McLaren driver applied 59.2 psi of brake pressure, which significantly reduced his speed on the straight between Chapel and Stowe corners. He went from 218 kph (135.459 mph) to 52 kph (32.3 mph) and to avoid a collision, the stewards said Verstappen took evasive action, which is where viewers saw the Red Bull shoot off to Piastri's side and 'unavoidably overtake' the McLaren temporarily.
Advertisement
Article 55.15 of F1's sporting regulations requires drivers 'to proceed at a pace which involves 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.' In the stewards' opinion, based on the evidence and this requirement, they felt what Piastri did 'was clearly a breach of that article.'
A 10-second time penalty was dished out — the option to give a five-second penalty was available — and Piastri also picked up two penalty points in the incident. He now has six of the permitted 11 in any 12-month period.
The Australian claimed the moment was purely a coincidence, saying he happened to brake at the same moment the safety car's lights went out (and he felt that was late).
Piastri believed he didn't do anything differently than his first restart, including going slower, and when asked whether he'd speak to the stewards for clarification, he replied, 'I don't know. I don't think it's worth doing at the moment. I'm not sure it's going to be very constructive in all honesty.'
The situation is similar to what happened during last month's Canadian Grand Prix with George Russell. This led to a protest from Red Bull over the Mercedes driver's braking behind the safety car, with Verstappen following behind and briefly coming alongside. But the Montreal stewards' panel rejected this protest.
There, Red Bull had alleged that Russell had also braked erratically behind the safety car, and Russell's argument was that his braking was standard for maintaining tire and brake temperatures. The stewards agreed, but there was a big difference between Russell's braking in Montreal and Piastri's braking on Sunday. The Australian applied double the brake pressure and did so before a race restart.
Advertisement
There was one aspect that left Piastri 'a bit confused': Verstappen's evasive action.
The Australian driver said, 'I don't think he had to evade me. He managed the first time. I would say probably going back to Canada, I think he had to evade more there than he did today.' Even Verstappen seemed to find Piastri's penalty 'strange.'
'The thing is, this kind of scenario (has) happened to me a few times now,' Verstappen said. 'I just find it strange that suddenly now Oscar is the first one to receive 10 seconds for it.'
There are a few factors that McLaren team principal Andrea Stella wanted the stewards to take into account, such as the timing of the call for the safety car to come in and how the brake pressure outlined in the stewards' decision document is 'a pressure that you see during a safety car when you do some braking and acceleration.'
Stella added, 'We'd 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 racecraft of some competitors, definitely there's also the ability to make others look like they are causing severe infringement when they are not.'
Ultimately, Stella said McLaren will 'move on' and see what it can learn. As the race wore on, Piastri eventually served his penalty when Norris was closing in and they pitted to switch to medium slick tires.
At one point, once Piastri was behind Norris in the closing stages, he asked to swap the car positions in response to what he saw as the unfairness of the penalty. But it was a Hail Mary request. Piastri knew what the team's response would be, particularly since Norris hadn't done anything wrong that would warrant a swap. But he 'just wanted a small glimmer of hope that maybe I could get it back. I knew it wasn't gonna happen.'
Frustrations are normal in competitive sport, and it's not Piastri's first time dealing with this. However, this is likely the most dejected the F1 paddock has seen the 24-year-old since he joined the grid in 2023.
Advertisement
'It does obviously hurt at the moment,' Piastri said when asked how long it would take him to move on. 'It's a different hurt though because I know I deserved a lot more than what I got. I feel like I drove a really strong race and ultimately when you don't get the result you think you deserve, it hurts. Especially when it's not in your control.'
Despite the mixed conditions that were treacherous at times at Silverstone and led to incredibly low visibility and aquaplaning, McLaren dominated again. Nico Hülkenberg rounded out the podium (his first in F1 after 239 races) but finished 27.93 seconds behind second-place Piastri, showing just how monstrous a gap the duo had built.
The biggest question ended up being whether Verstappen's lower-downforce rear wing would've kept him out of reach from pole had it not rained. But the conditions rendered this moot.
Piastri's drive at Silverstone is one that could have resulted in a sixth 2025 race victory. As usual, he was methodical in his approach and demonstrated rapid speed. Stella noted, 'Oscar is a very fast, very strong, very determined driver. He proved that (on Sunday).'
The Australian driver was quicker in the early stages compared to his teammate. While Norris began saving his tires early in the race to ensure he had rubber ready to go when the rain came and as it dried later, Piastri focused on fighting for the lead and then pulling away. Stella said, 'In fairness to Oscar, he also had great speed.'
'It's not only determination, you also have to realize the lap times that he was able to realize. And definitely, in terms of race craft, we know Oscar is very effective when he goes for an overtake. He did it today once again,' Stella said. 'So, it's not only the speed, but it's also more what was the objective at that stage (earlier in the race).'
Norris benefitted from Piastri's penalty and navigated a strong race of his own to bring home a monumental victory for himself, his family and his team. But he made sure to give Piastri his flowers when discussing how stressful the event was, saying the Australian did have 'a good race.'
'I've got to give my credits to Oscar,' Norris added. 'He was fast the whole way. A round of applause for Oscar because he put up a good fight, and I enjoy those moments together when we're on track. Not as much when he's ahead of me as when he's behind, but that's life.'