The McLaren driver had been leading comfortably at Silverstone before being handed a 10-second time penalty for “erratic” driving behind the Safety Car.
The penalty stemmed from a Lap 22 restart, where Piastri dramatically slowed from 218 km/h to 52 km/h while preparing to resume racing, forcing Max Verstappen to take evasive action.
While Piastri served the penalty during his final stop — surrendering the lead to teammate Lando Norris and ultimately finishing second — he said the move had precedent and believes the rules surrounding such actions are now better understood.
“I obviously looked through it with the team afterwards, and yeah, I think there’s been a lot of learning on both sides,” Piastri said.
“I think for me I still have my feelings about it, I guess, but it’s in the past now and I’ve moved on.
“I think for me it was a manoeuvre that had been done before by myself in some cases, but other drivers as well in the past in an identical manner.
“Obviously if it needs to be penalised now, then that’s fine. I know that for the future.”
Piastri confirmed he and McLaren spoke with the FIA after the race to seek clarification on the threshold for what constitutes unsafe behaviour during a restart.
“We’ve had discussions with the FIA, and like I said, I think there was learning on both sides about how that situation could have been handled differently,” he added.
“So for myself I won’t brake as hard next time, it’s as simple as that. I think also now the threshold I guess is a bit clearer on where that stands, so I will simply not brake as hard.”
Piastri’s second-place finish behind Norris reduced the gap in the drivers’ championship to just eight points, with the Melbourne ace chasing his first win since the Spanish Grand Prix last month.
The 24-year-old is hopeful of bouncing back in Belgium this weekend at a circuit he’s long considered a favourite.
“I would like to win anywhere but here is always a track I’ve really enjoyed from the first time I came here,” he said.
“There’s a lot of things about this place, being in the forest like this, the length of the track, the layout, and again, some of the iconic corners that you don’t get anywhere else. That’s what I love about it.
“It’s just a very challenging layout for everything. There’s a lot of straights where you can overtake, there’s very technical sections in sector two, and it’s just a track that I’ve always enjoyed.”
Piastri finished second at Spa last year, promoted from third after George Russell’s disqualification.
2025 F1 Belgian Grand Prix – Schedule, how to watch, TV times & more
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