The British Grand Prix stewards hit Oscar Piastri with a penalty which was “extreme to say the least”, according to former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer.
The ex-Renault racer backed his claim up with data analysis, the braking traces of Piastri and Max Verstappen suggesting that Verstappen did not brake as hard as he could have done – and had done earlier – in an incident behind the Safety Car which landed Piastri a 10-second penalty, costing him the win.
Oscar Piastri British GP penalty: Harsh or fair?
Piastri had been in control for much of a chaotic, rain-affected British Grand Prix, but his victory chances unravelled when he was hit with a 10-second penalty.
As the Safety Car lights went out down the Hangar Straight – signalling the impeding restart – Piastri braked and created a gap to the Safety Car, resulting in Verstappen briefly overtaking him on the right.
The stewards judged that to have been ‘erratic’ braking from Piastri and issued the 10-second penalty, Piastri’s McLaren team-mate Lando Norris going on to take a first home race win, 6.8s ahead of Piastri at the line.
Palmer was at odds with the stewards on this one. In his analysis for the Formula 1 YouTube channel, Palmer said: “I believe it was far too harsh for Oscar.
“We’ve still got the Safety Car with his lights on, so this means that Oscar has to stay within 10 car lengths of the Safety Car at this point. He’s not in control of his own pace.
“Safety Car lights are about to go off now, as Oscar is accelerating. So Safety Car finally is lights off, now Oscar hits the brakes, and Max just comes around the side of him.
“The rest of the field start to line-up behind now and Oscar is just trying to give the Safety Car enough of a berth so that when he goes, he’s not going to accelerate in a Formula 1 car, a lot quicker than the Safety Car and end up overtaking the Safety Car, or, having to back off to avoid overtaking the Safety Car, which would be a pretty bad infringement as well.
“Once you go, you’re not supposed to then back off.
“So he’s seen the Safety Car lights go off, he’s hit the brakes, and slowed it up. And for that, he’s got a 10-second penalty, which I think is extreme to say the least.
“It’s such an innocuous moment in this Grand Prix, so I think it’s an extremely harsh penalty on Oscar.”
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Palmer believes Verstappen would have been fully capable of reacting and staying behind.
“Oscar has hit the brakes pretty hard, he has slowed down 100mph of speed, and it’s a lot for this sort of time,” Palmer adds, “but Max doesn’t brake particularly hard, I think he can see it quite a long way in advance and just chooses to go around.
“There’s no sign of a lock-up. We’re nowhere near a lock-up with Max. So, he’s not on the limit of braking to try to stay behind.”
Palmer knows that because he analysed the data for Piastri and Verstappen, which showed Verstappen’s braking trace did not carry a sudden peak like Piastri’s as he hit the pedal, but rather a more gradual line.
A disgruntled Piastri said after the race that his driving during the second Safety Car restart was the same as during the first, data analysis from PlanetF1.com’s resident expert Uros Radovanovic confirming virtually identical actions from the championship leader.
“The proof of that is in the data here,” Palmer continued. “Moment here, for the penalty, where Oscar in the blue hits the brakes, Max behind him hits the brakes in the red, and Oscar’s brake trace down here, the blue picks up and comes back down.
“Max, doesn’t brake quite as hard as Oscar. The brakes stay on for a while, and he has to go around the McLaren. He’s not on the limit of the brakes to try to avoid a collision and he’s just choosing to go around him, and Oscar doesn’t deviate his line either.
“Compare that to a few corners before, and you’ve got coming into Maggotts, a similar thing; Oscar hits the brakes hard on the straight, he’s behind the Safety Car still, but this time, Max manages to copy the braking trace of the McLaren ahead, and it’s very similar to the moment on the Hangar Straight.
“So he’s got that capability, he just doesn’t use it at the time. And it’s fine for Max, because I don’t think he’s done anything particularly wrong here either, I’m not saying he should, but he has the option to brake harder to avoid to have to go around the McLaren if he wants to.”
Piastri departed Silverstone still leading the Drivers’ Championship, though Norris has reduced his buffer to eight points after back-to-back wins.
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