McLaren boss Andrea Stella has described the stewards’ decision to hand Oscar Piastri a 10-second penalty during the Formula 1 British Grand Prix as “very harsh.”
The Australian was given the penalty for slowing sharply at the end of a Safety Car period, which left Max Verstappen requiring to also slow as he momentarily overtook him.
Race control placed Piastri under investigation and after deliberation, decided that his manoeuvre was “clearly a breach” of the rule that prohibits anything other than driving 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.”
After the race, Stella, speaking to media including Motorsport Week, explained why he thought Piastri’s penalty was unfair.
“I have to say that the penalty still looks very harsh,” he said. “There’s a few factors that we wouldn’t 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.”
Stella seemed to hint that Verstappen may have contributed to the decision to penalise Piastri, intimating that drivers are able to make another’s move look worse than it actually was.
“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 car with 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.”
Stella defends the ‘difficult job’ of the stewards, but confirms ‘conversation’ to evaluate penalty
Despite his disagreement with the decision, Stella was even-handed, admitting the stewards are always under pressure to make the right decision.
“Look, the fact that today we have a situation which we judge as a team as being a harsh penalty for one of our drivers doesn’t change our opinion that the FIA and the stewards, they do a difficult job,” he said.
“They all try their best. I think they do their best also to try and be consistent. There’s many different scenarios.
“All the scenarios they change for some subtleties. It’s no different, I think, operating as a steward or the FIA from operating as a team.
“It’s always difficult to make the right calls. So what’s important is that we keep the dialogue going.
“I think we will have a good conversation with the FIA and with the stewards and we will see how this situation could have been interpreted differently.
“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 holding so late and then put together all the elements such that the decision could be as fair as possible.”
READ MORE – Oscar Piastri bites tongue amid fury at F1 British GP penalty
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