Oscar Piastri Brazil penalty a microcosm of playing it safe in McLaren’s polite title fight

Thomas Maher 10 Nov 2025 8:00 PM

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri tried to play it safe in Brazil, and suffered the consequences.

Oscar Piastri’s attempts to play it safe in Brazil, just like in the championship, backfired on the Australian.

Piastri spotted the opportunity for a daring move to take second place upon the restart on Lap 6 at Interlagos, but the stewards ruled he was predominantly to blame for the three-wide clash that eliminated Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Andrea Stella: Oscar Piastri penalty on the ‘harsh side’

It’s tough not to feel for Oscar Piastri on a weekend where the momentum shift of recent weekends in favour of Lando Norris was underlined so dramatically.

Not only did Norris demolish Piastri in a straightforward display of pace between Laps 6 and 30, opening up a gap of seven seconds between the pair, but the Australian’s race was ruined as the stewards felt his move to get into second place at the start of Lap 6 warranted punishment.

According to the stewards, Piastri had not established enough of an overlap with Antonelli’s Mercedes “prior to and at the apex” of Turn 1, as defined by the Driving Standard Guidelines for overtaking on the inside of a corner.

Piastri’s lock-up on the brakes, upon realising that Antonelli was likely to pinch him at the apex, wasn’t enough to avoid contact, and the sequence of events meant Charles Leclerc, on the outside of both, was eliminated on the spot.

Piastri was found wholly responsible for the clash, and he was given the usual 10-second time penalty and two penalty points that such a transgression receives.

It’s indicative of just how overly prescribed and unnecessarily convoluted the Racing Guidelines are, with modern F1 evolving to the point where seemingly straightforward racing incidents still warrant finding a culprit.

As Piastri pointed out afterwards, there was nowhere else for him to go; he hadn’t come steaming into the corner and was maintaining a tight line on the apex. Short of not attempting a move in the first place, there was nothing more Piastri could have done, and sitting back in the off-chance a rival may not make full use of all the room available to them is the antithesis of what racing should be.

With the resulting penalty costing Piastri any chance of second place and minimising the damage done to him in the championship, it’s reminiscent of the penalty Juan Pablo Montoya picked up in the 2003 United States Grand Prix when he found himself squeezed onto the kerbs at Turn 2 by Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello.

Montoya, like Piastri, was part of the three-way battle for the title that season, against Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, but his bid was compromised by the penalty given to him for the collision with Barrichello; in a sport less concerned with apportioning blame in those days, Montoya’s penalty was seen as controversial and harsh given that Barrichello had squeezed the Colombian in the first place.

With Montoya resigned to sixth as a consequence, ending his championship bid, Piastri’s penalty in Brazil isn’t quite of the same magnitude; it hasn’t completely ended his championship chances but has handed all the momentum to a rival driver, and all for a moment that few would disagree was harsh in consequences.

Leclerc, who retired as a result, said he felt the incident had been of 50/50 blame between Piastri and Antonelli: Piastri for being overly optimistic, and Antonelli for driving as if the McLaren driver wasn’t alongside him on the inside.

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella agreed: “I would say definitely on the harsh side.

“It’s true, we see a little lock-up, but at the same time, he’s able to maintain the trajectory, which is ultimately what counts. I think the responsibility should be shared with Kimi, because Kimi kind of knew that Oscar was on the inside, and the collision probably could have been avoided.

“Perhaps Kimi was also worried about having Leclerc on the outside. A difficult situation, obviously, but I think overall, the penalty is harsh for Oscar to be considered fully to blame for this incident at the same time.”

But, despite thinking this, there was no desire from McLaren to do what Williams did at Zandvoort and lodge a petition for a right of review for a questionable call: “Now it’s done, so I reiterate the respect that we have for the stewards. We accept it, we move on.”

Would this reserved reaction of acceptance, a nonchalant shrug of ‘it is what it is’ from Stella, just like post-Silverstone, have been the same if Piastri were the only McLaren driver in contention for the title this year? One thinks not.

Had Piastri actually come barreling into the corner without tentativeness and ‘claimed the apex’ ahead of Antonelli, the racing guidelines may have actually found in his favour; such are the foibles of these unnecessary rules. In his attempts to be cautious and play it safe with everyone, Piastri only cost himself dearly; a perfect summation of his entire championship bid, given how his own willingness to play the team game has yielded little reward.

Why Oscar Piastri must ask himself questions about McLaren home

There’s an air of curious detachment and passivity about the way Piastri’s title bid has fallen apart in recent races, even from the driver himself. While the Australian has proven remarkably level-headed throughout his first championship challenge, the wild swing of fortunes away from him and towards Norris has seen him react to the slipping away of his hopes and dreams with a curious absence of urgency about the whole scenario.

In the final weeks of realising his dreams, the vagaries of momentum, form, and sheer luck have punished him. It’s been a devastating turn of events, but it’s worth remembering that he is one of two drivers at McLaren in contention for the title.

There simply is no need for McLaren to go to war on his behalf; no reason for them to challenge the stewards, no reason to stir the pot against a rival team, no reason to create a furore of any description. Because, even if Piastri can’t do it, Norris can. And with Piastri unwilling to publicly show any unhappiness, McLaren can sit back and let the issues resolve themselves.

Contrast that with Red Bull (at least under Christian Horner), whose willingness to fight for every single point possible bordered on the belligerent; just think about its protest of George Russell’s braking in a straight line in Canada earlier this year. As Jos Verstappen said pre-Brazil, Piastri and his manager, Mark Webber, should be boisterously making themselves heard at McLaren, cracking the whip to ensure both sides are delivering at their best, as a matter of urgency.

Piastri being in a team that is content to let whatever happens happen, combined with his own predilection for calmness, is perhaps why his title fight is going out with a whimper, rather than a bang. Perhaps that moment of acquiescence at Monza, relinquishing position to Norris despite the circumstances of the why, was a bigger blow to Piastri’s confidence than expected; a realisation that the team would interfere with his ambitions in the interest of preserving its own ideals of fairness, rather than backing him all the way.

Perhaps that’s why Max Verstappen, a driver who infamously wouldn’t even relinquish a meaningless sixth place to Sergio Perez in 2022, laughed at the idea at the time, realising the incompatibility of Piastri’s ambitions with those of his team. In his willingness to keep the peace within his team, Piastri gave up command of his destiny and has never recovered it.

It’s a curious sequence of events, given the experience that Webber has had with similar: after the Australian lost the impetus in the 2010 title fight at the Korean Grand Prix, he never quite recovered to the same level and lost control of the team dynamic at Red Bull to Sebastian Vettel – a driver who made it crystal clear during his peak years that he did not give a toss about keeping the peace.

Short of Norris completely self-imploding or encountering tremendous bad luck, Piastri’s title fight is done, and the curious lack of passion and emotion that has surrounded this entire year’s championship fight even pervades now, right at the climax.

Of course, from fans, there are the usual cries of bias and sabotage, but these are baseless. There simply is no need for McLaren to interfere at this point; as long as one driver delivers, it doesn’t really matter what the other does. For Piastri, the momentum has ebbed away from him, and it’s on him to try seizing back the initiative.

No matter how polite a young man Piastri may be, the possibility of his maiden title being unfairly taken away from him via sabotage would surely inspire him to stand up for himself. Upon being bluntly asked about this exact topic heading into the weekend, Piastri promptly and firmly shut it down. Nothing to see here, folks.

While Verstappen’s chances have also all but vanished, there’s no sense that the Dutch driver could have done any more; he called the team out when needed, raised his voice when required, and the aggression of the setup and strategy choices in Brazil showed there was no going down without a fight.

What is admirable is just how McLaren’s effective management of the title fight this year has created a dynamic where a title fight has played out with barely a barbed comment or a radio message that can be described more negatively than ‘miffed’. For that, McLaren must be applauded, although it hasn’t made for particularly thrilling viewing, while there is some luck involved in that neither Norris nor Piastri appears to have the type of personality willing to create internal conflict.

Given Norris’ greater experience, in terms of longevity and fighting for a title, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Piastri hasn’t nailed it at the first time of asking, but what he will have to ask himself is whether or not the environment he finds himself in is what will bring out the best in himself as a sportsman.

For a personality as strong as Verstappen’s, the on-edge aggression of Red Bull suits him well; the snarky back and forth between himself and race engineer GianPiero Lambiase is unrivalled on the grid.

For Lewis Hamilton, the years of clinical precision and deference from Pete Bonnington, and a clear driver hierarchy (post-Nico Rosberg) gave him half a decade of control of F1. For Lando Norris, a man who acknowledges his openness in the expression of his emotions can hold him back, the calm politeness of the team’s approach is one that he has grown with and is prospering in.

For Piastri, he has to ask himself whether this calmness at McLaren meshes well with his approach, or whether he needs a more galvanising influence from his team in order to ensure his next title bid doesn’t sputter out quite so disappointingly.

McLaren Oscar Piastri