I deserved more – Piastri fumes at British GP safety car penalty

Oscar Piastri believes he deserved more than second place in the British Grand Prix after being hit by a safety car penalty that cost him victory.

The stewards gave Piastri a 10s time penalty for braking erratically on the final safety car restart, when he slowed in front of Max Verstappen and the Red Bull driver went past him. In the decision, the stewards wrote:

“When the clerk of the course had declared that the Safety Car was coming in that lap and the lights were extinguished, Car No. 81 suddenly braked hard (59.2 psi of brake pressure) and reduced speed in the middle of the straight between Turn 14 and Turn 15, from 218kph to 52kph, resulting in Car No. 1 having to take evasive action to avoid a collision. 

“This momentarily resulted in Car No. 1 unavoidably overtaking Car No. 81, a position which he gave back immediately.

“Article 55.15 of the FIA Sporting Regulations required Car No. 81 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.”

Piastri says the lights only went out as he hit the brakes, and so it was a similar scenario to previous laps when he was warming brakes behind the safety car.

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“I hit the brakes,” Piastri said. “At the same time I did that, the lights on the safety car went out, which was also extremely late. Obviously I didn't accelerate because I can control the pace from there. 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, so a shame.

“Obviously hurts at the moment. 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. Ultimately, when you don't get the result you think you deserve, it hurts, especially when it's not in your control.

“I think it was a really, really good day – a similar race to 12 months ago and a very different outcome for the whole team. 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. It just makes it more painful when you don't win.”

Piastri says he didn’t expect McLaren to impose team orders to swap the positions again after his penalty, despite a request for the team to do so if it felt the punishment was unfair.

“I thought I would ask the question," he said. "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. I knew it wasn't going to happen.

“Don't think there's anything wrong with [McLaren denying the request]. Lando didn't do anything wrong. I don't think it would have been particularly fair to have swapped, but I thought I'd at least ask. It doesn't change much for the championship. I feel like I did a good job today; I did what I needed to. That's all I need, and I will use the frustration to make sure I win some more races later.”