The Australian was left gutted at the British Grand Prix after being handed a 10-second time penalty for a Safety Car infringement, a decision that cost him a likely victory and sparked debate across the paddock.
The 24-year-old had dominated a chaotic, rain-affected race until Lap 22, when the second Safety Car period came to an end. As it pulled into the pits, Piastri — then running ahead of Max Verstappen — was judged to have braked too sharply just before the restart.
The stewards said he decelerated from 218 km/h to 52 km/h, applying 59.2 psi of brake pressure, which forced Verstappen to take evasive action. They deemed it a breach of Article 55.15 of the sporting regulations and issued a 10-second penalty.
The call dropped Piastri behind teammate Lando Norris after the final round of pit stops, effectively handing the Briton his first-ever home victory. Piastri still finished second, but he wasn’t happy.
The incident that led to Piastri’s 10-second penalty 👀#F1 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/19PHX5hXGO
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 6, 2025
“I think I’ll get myself banned for the year if I say anything here,” he said on the radio after the race.
In post-race interviews, he didn’t hold back.
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“Apparently you can’t brake behind the Safety Car anymore. I did it for five laps before,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“I don’t really understand. I need to look back and see. I really don’t think I did anything different or anything wrong.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella called the decision harsh and said the late withdrawal of the Safety Car left Piastri with little time to manage the pack safely.
“We thought the Safety Car pulled in relatively late,” Stella told Sky Sports F1.
“This didn’t give much space for the leading driver to take control of the group and go with the restart procedure.
“We think the penalty was harsh.”
‘I did nothing wrong’: Piastri stunned by safety car penalty
McLaren CEO Zak Brown added that the team’s telemetry didn’t support how severe the incident looked on TV.
“I think Max accelerated, Oscar braked, which I think made it look worse than it was,” Brown said. The telemetry didn’t look like it did on TV.”
Piastri even asked over the radio late in the race whether he could swap positions with Norris, believing he had done enough to deserve the lead.
“I wasn’t expecting much, but I thought I’d at least ask,” he said. “[I’m] not saying I deserved to win it, but I felt like at that point I had done everything I needed to.”
The stewards disagreed — and once again, F1 finds itself facing questions over how racing rules are applied, and whether the penalty matched the moment.
So, what do you think? Did Oscar Piastri deserve the penalty that cost him the win at Silverstone?
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