Did stewards’ inconsistency cost Piastri British GP win?

SILVERSTONE, England — Although he tempered his answers to the media on Sunday evening, Oscar Piastri couldn’t hide his emotions as he responded to countless questions about the 10-second penalty that cost him victory at the British Grand Prix. For fear of attracting the wrath of the FIA, he gave short and simple answers to TV cameras, refusing to elaborate on the true feelings that were no doubt seething inside.

Finishing his broadcast media duties long before his ebullient teammate and race winner, Lando Norrismeant Piastri had to wait alone for 25 minutes in the news conference room before the compulsory written media session began. When it did, Piastri again carefully trod the line between making no secret of his frustration and venting his true emotions.

“It obviously hurts at the moment,” he said. “It’s a different hurt, though, because I know I deserved a lot more than what I got today. I felt like I drove a really strong race.

“And yeah, ultimately when you don’t get the result you think you deserve, it hurts. Especially when it’s not in your control.”

Famed for his calmness over team radio and inscrutable reactions to race wins, Piastri is practiced in keeping his emotions under wraps.

Up until lap 21, and a second safety car restart, he had done everything right at Silverstone, but one seemingly routine jab of the brakes cost him victory as well as a 14-point swing in the drivers’ standings in Norris’ favor.

There was little doubt on Sunday evening that Piastri had not intended to do anything untoward or gain an advantage by catching the driver behind him, Max Verstappenoff guard. A period of two back-to-back safety car periods spanning seven laps had resulted in his tires and brakes cooling, and the best way to rebuild temperature was to brake heavily and make use of the heat generated by the glowing carbon brake discs.

“I hit the brakes,” Piastri explained. “At the same time I did that, the lights on the safety car went out, which was also extremely late [around the lap].

“And then obviously, I didn’t accelerate because I can control the pace from there. And, yeah, you saw the result. I didn’t do anything differently to my first restart. I didn’t go any slower. I didn’t do anything differently.”

But the heavy braking, and the fact Piastri didn’t then accelerate immediately after, resulted in second-placed Verstappen being caught by surprise. The Red Bull driver sailed past the McLaren, breaching one of the simplest safety car rules in the process by overtaking the car in front.

At first it looked like Verstappen might be investigated, but the stewards honed in on Piastri’s actions as the cause for the overlapping cars.

With access to the telemetry of the McLaren, the stewards were able to analyze the exact input on the brakes and accurately measure the 100 mph speed difference before and after his left foot stomped on the pedal. What they found led them to believe Piastri had broken another safety car rule that outlaws erratic driving.

A stewards’ statement read: “When the clerk of the course had declared that the safety car was coming in that lap and the lights were extinguished, Car 81 suddenly braked hard (59.2 psi of brake pressure) and reduced speed in the middle of the straight between T14 and T15, from 218 kph (135 mph) to 52 kph (32 mph), resulting in Car 1 having to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

“This momentarily resulted in Car 1 unavoidably overtaking Car 81, a position which he gave back immediately. Article 55.15 of the FIA Sporting Regulations required Car 81 to proceed at a pace which involved no erratic braking nor any other maneuver which is likely to endanger other drivers from the point at which the lights on the safety car are turned off. What Car 81 did was clearly a breach of that article.”

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, who also reviewed data before talking to the media on Sunday evening, felt the incident had been overblown. He also suggested that Verstappen acted in a way that had perhaps made Piastri’s actions look worse.

“I have to say that the penalty still looks very harsh,” he said. “There’s a few factors that we would like the stewards to take into account.

“First of all, the safety car was pulled in very late, not leaving much time for the leader to actually restart in conditions in which you lose higher temperature, you lose brake temperature and the same goes for everyone. The 50 bar [brake pressure]it’s a pressure that you see during the safety car when you do some braking and acceleration.

“We’ll 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 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.

“So, a few things to review, but in itself now the penalty has been decided, has been served and we move on. 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 trying to win as many races as possible.”

While Verstappen clearly did not want to be drawn on the subject while speaking to the media, he did question why Piastri got a penalty when similar sitaions in the past had gone unpenalized.

“You know, the thing is that it happened to me now a few times, this kind of scenario,” Verstappen said. “I just find it strange that suddenly now Oscar is the first one to receive 10econds for it.”

The question of consistency was also raised by Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, drawing upon a very recent precedent set by his team’s failed protest against George Russell after the Canadian Grand Prix. In Montreal, Red Bull accused Russell of driving erratically behind the safety car in an incident with some clear similarities to Sunday’s, but had their protest rejected by the stewards.

“I mean, George obviously didn’t get one in Canada,” Horner said. “I wasn’t surprised to see [Piastri] get a penalty. That was what you would expect. It was probably more surprising that George didn’t get one in Montreal, to be honest with you.”

Yet the stewards’ findings from the two investigations in Canada and Silverstone do have one very clear difference: Russell’s brake pressure in Canada was measured at 30 psi, while Piastri’s was nearly double that at 59.2 psi. Nevertheless, Piastri believes the most important factor — the evasive action Verstappen had to take — was more serious in Montreal than Great Britain.

“I don’t think he had to evade me,” he said. “I think he managed the first time [under the first safety car]. Going back to Canada, I think you had to evade more there than you did today. So, yeah, I’m a bit confused to say the least.”

Could McLaren have switched its drivers?

Piastri’s 10-second penalty saw him come out behind Norris after the pair made their final pit stops of the race to switch from intermediates to slicks. Clearly struggling to accept the outcome, Piastri asked if the two drivers could swap positions, albeit knowing it was unlikely the team would agree.

“I thought I would ask the question,” he explained after the race. “I knew what the answer was going to be before I asked, but I just wanted a small glimmer of hope that maybe I could get it back. But no, I knew it wasn’t going to happen.”

Stella had no issue with his driver floating the idea and said the pit wall had thought carefully about the fairest way to let the race unfold.

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Drivers react to Lando Norris’ first British GP victory

Hear from Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Nico Hulkenberg after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

“As part of the way we go racing together with Lando and Oscar, we always tell our drivers, don’t keep things in the back of your mind when you drive,” he said. “If you have a point, if you have a suggestion, if you want to let us know what you’re thinking, just say it. And then we will evaluate it a bit more, we will make a decision, we will come back to you.

“So I think what Oscar did is exactly what we incentivized our drivers to do. He communicated, he expressed his opinion, which we evaluated. In reality, the way we managed the situation today, given the penalty, was to allow Oscar, despite the penalty, in case of a safety car, to retain the lead because if there was a safety car, both cars would have pitted [together] and Oscar would have paid the penalty while Lando would have waited and the two McLarens would have gone out in the same order as they came in.

“But at the point in which we needed to have the transition to the dry tires, then the penalty was taken and at that stage we thought that we should just retain the natural order again to the penalty. So I think this was a fair and I’m sure that Oscar will understand and agree with this point of view.”

The byproduct of the penalty was a significant home win for Norris and the reduction of Piastri’s lead in the drivers’ standings to just eight points. It marks Norris’ third win in five races as the British driver’s championship challenge continues to build momentum.

The one element of consolation for Piastri is that for the vast majority of Sunday’s race he was the fastest driver on track.

“The whole team did a really good job, the car was obviously mega, and giving myself credit, I feel like I did a good job today,” he said on reflection. “It just makes it more painful when you don’t win.”