Max Verstappen Rages on Radio at Oscar Piastri Over Safety Car Chaos
Max Verstappen was left fuming at Silverstone after a chaotic Safety Car restart flipped his race upside down and now McLaren are weighing their options as controversy engulfs the British Grand Prix.
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It all kicked off on Lap 22. As the Safety Car peeled into the pits, race leader Oscar Piastri backed up the pack, slowing his McLaren sharply. Verstappen, right behind him, got caught off guard and surged ahead — only to suffer a wild spin moments later, dropping from second to 11th.
'Whoa mate! [Expletives]! He just again suddenly slows down,' Verstappen shouted over the radio, his frustration raw and immediate. The reigning world champion had reason to be livid: the incident derailed what had looked like another straightforward Sunday.
The stewards didn't take long to act. They slapped Piastri with a 10-second penalty for a Safety Car infringement, ruling that the McLaren driver had slowed too unpredictably before the restart line. But even as the penalty came through, the situation was far from settled.
Max Verstappen during FP3 at Canadian GP.David Kirouac-Imagn Images
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, McLaren CEO Zak Brown suggested it wasn't nearly as cut-and-dried as it appeared on TV. 'We're debating that here on the pit wall. That was a bit of a late Safety Car call in. The leader controls the race. I think it looked a little bit more dramatic on TV than we saw on telemetry.'
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Pressed on whether Mclaren might appeal, Brown admitted: 'Yeah. That's exactly the conversation that we're having. I think you also had Max accelerating because he thought Oscar was about ready to go. A combination of both.'
It's a fresher layer of tension in what's already been one of the most tightly fought F1 seasons in years.
Related: Max Verstappen Cracks Fatherhood Joke Before Leading British GP From Pole
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
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