Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri have been hit with a substantial penalty following their controversial collision at the British Grand Prix, a decision that has drawn attention from fans and pundits. The FIA’s verdict raises questions about race conduct and the responsibility of drivers in ensuring safe racing practices throughout the season.
The FIA have announced a penalty for McLaren F1 star Oscar Piastri after a safety car infringement that involved Max Verstappen at the British Grand Prix.
On the second safety car restart at Silverstone, Piastri slowed down suddenly under the safety car with the incident causing confusion for Verstappen.
The four-time world champion accelerated because he thought Piastri was ready to go on the safety car restart, but Verstappen was mistaken and then suffered a major spin after the restart which demoted him down to P11.
As a result, the stewards did not take kindly to Piastri’s move and slammed the McLaren star with a 10-second time penalty, which could prove detrimental to his chances of a race victory.
Will McLaren appeal Piastri penalty?
Piastri has been slammed with a penalty
Zak Brown revealed to Sky Sports on the pit wall that the team were debating appealing the penalty, where he said: “We’re debating that here on the pit wall. That was a bit of a late Safety Car call in.
“The leader controls the race. I think it looked a little bit more dramatic on tv than we saw on telemetry.”
“I think you also had Max accelerating because he thought Oscar was about ready to go. A combination of both.”
If Piastri’s penalty is maintained, the Aussie will have to extend at least 10 seconds over his team-mate Lando Norris to maintain the race victory, but otherwise can only hope for a second place finish at best.
