Oscar Piastri’s Brazilian GP penalty questioned in guidelines debate
Oscar Piastri was given a 10-second penalty for being "wholly" responsible.
Although accepting Formula 1’s revolving stewards have a “very difficult” job, George Russell says they need to take into account the characteristics of a corner over and above Formula 1’s Driving Standard Guidelines.
The sport’s guidelines were one of the big talking points in the build-up to the Las Vegas Grand Prix after Oscar Piastri’s championship hopes were handed a huge blow when he was penalised 10 seconds at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri’s Brazil penalty was a huge blow to his title hopes
Lining up fourth in a Safety Car restart, Piastri was involved in a three-way collision with Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc that resulted in the Ferrari driver retiring from the race after losing a wheel.
The stewards ruled that Piastri, who was trying to pass Antonelli up the inside at Turn 1 with Leclerc on the outside of the Mercedes, was “wholly” to blame and hit him with an in-race penalty.
They justified the penalty based on Formula 1’s Driving Standard Guidelines.
“Car 81 (Oscar Piastri) attempted to overtake Car 12 (Kimi Antonelli) on the inside of Turn 1,” the stewards noted. “In doing so, PIA did not establish the required overlap prior to and at the apex, as his front axle was not alongside the mirror of Car 12, as defined in the Driving Standard Guidelines for overtaking on the inside of a corner.
“PIA locked the brakes as he attempted to avoid contact by slowing, but was unable to do so and made contact with ANT. This contact caused ANT to make secondary contact with Car 16 (Charles Leclerc).
“PIA was therefore wholly responsible for the collision.”
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The penalty, a 10-second time penalty that was a blow to Piastri’s championship hopes as he dropped 24 points to his teammate Norris, raised questions about Formula 1’s Driving Standard Guidelines.
Although the stewards penalised Piastri to the letter of the law, GPDA chairman Russell says the wording is too generic and doesn’t take into account the nature of Interlagos’ Turn 1.
After all, every track is made of different corners that have varying characteristics that need to be factored in when a ruling is made.
It had the Briton once again raising the call for permanent stewards in Formula 1.
“I think it’s very difficult,” he told the media ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. “The guidelines have to be guidelines. There’s a bit of a wording or a view that if a car is locking up, it’s deemed to be out of control.
“This corner in Brazil is totally cambered into the corner. The inside of the car is always going to be unloaded, and that tyre is not even on the ground, so that tyre is locking, but you’re totally in control.
“So that’s where it has to be with the guidelines, and you have to see every single corner, every circuit, every incident, totally different.
“And it goes back to the same point of, if we have the same stewards race after race, we can have these conversations, and we can also explain to them some uniqueness in driving a Formula 1 car at a circuit like Brazil, in a corner like Turn 1 where the tyre is going to be sort of locking up, but it doesn’t mean you’re out of control.
“So look, it’s very, very, very difficult for the stewards. They do their absolute best, and you know, the majority of the time they get it right. There’s always going to be the odd occasion that they get wrong. Yeah, not easy.”
The same question was put to Max Verstappen, however, the Red Bull driver brushed it off as it’s not something that can resolved by chatting with the media in a press conference.
“I would prefer not to comment on that here. We’re not going to solve it in here anyway,” he said.
With three race weekends remaining this season, Piastri finds himself trailing Norris by 24 points in the Drivers’ standings as his streak of races without a podium finish extended to five at the Brazilian Grand Prix. There is a maximum 83 points still in play with 25 up for grabs in Las Vegas.
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