Former Formula 1 driver and reporter Jolyon Palmer has branded Oscar Piastri’s British Grand Prix penalty as “harsh”.
The McLaren driver was handed a 10-second penalty during the race at Silverstone for driving erratically behind the safety car. Leading at the time, Piastri’s braking caused Max Verstappen to temporarily overtake him before dropping back again.
After serving the penalty, he lost the lead to his team-mate Lando Norris, who went on to secure his first home race victory.
“I think there’s a couple of things here. I don’t think he’s done anything extraordinarily wrong,” Palmer explained during the F1 Nation podcast. “He’s obviously backed up the field on the safety car restart. He’s hit reasonable brake pressure to slow the car down, but I just don’t see it as a major moment.
“He’s done exactly the same thing four laps before that. Actually almost caused a little bit more drama further back in the field with Nico Hulkenberg not being happy and had to take a bit of avoiding action. But that one, the FIA didn’t even look at it.
“They reportedly weren’t best pleased and were debating whether they were going to look at it, but they just fundamentally didn’t. So then to give quite a significant penalty four laps later for something that was, to me, looked really innocuous – oh, it’s harsh.
“And also, I mean, we’ve been following [F1] a long time. Can you guys remember a single penalty for this sort of infringement before? Because I can’t.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
“Someone being erratic – you know, George Russell wasn’t even investigated in Canada for something – not that comparable – but ultimately a similar offence. And Red Bull appealed it, and it was thrown out.
“I can’t remember a single driver ever getting pinged for this. So, for Oscar to lose a race win for something that caused no real drama further back – I know Max overtook him, but they sorted themselves out.
“There was no – I don’t think there was bad intent. There was no advantage gained. I’ve never seen someone penalised for it in the past. And then he loses a British Grand Prix win. I could feel his frustration at the end of the race.”
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