F1 news: Oscar Piastri’s penalty at the F1 British Grand Prix, explained

Oscar Piastri was running at the front of the field in the British Grand Prix on Sunday, leading the pack in safety car conditions, the weather conditions had a significant impact on the operating order.

But just at the time when the period of the security car was coming to an end, a Braustri braking decision not only brought second place Max Verstappen next to him, but also opened the door to his McLaren teammate in Piastri to win the victory in Silverstone.

In the 21st round of the British Grand Prix, the yellow flag was due to wet conditions on the track, but the safety car arrived and Green Flag Racing had to resume. While Piastri led the field through the last turns, he suddenly brakes with Verstappen behind him. This forced Verstappen to stop right to avoid contact with the McLaren before him, and the race delegates immediately quoted the incident for a more in -depth investigation.

A few laps later, they made a serious decision, evaluating Piastri a ten -second penalty for a “violation of security cars”. This indeed ended all chance that Piastri had in a victory in the British Grand Prix, and Norris took advantage of it, winning his second consecutive race.

As the last laps, the race officials issued their written decision. Quoting “positioning / marshalling data, video, telemetry, team radio and video evidence in the car”, they noted that Piastri has led to an irregularly leading to regulations.

When the clerk of the course had declared that the safety car arrived in this tower and that the lights were extinguished, the car 81 suddenly hampered (59.2 psi of brake pressure) and a reduced speed in the middle of the right between T14 and T15, from 218 km / h to 52 km / h, which made it possible to take evasive measures to avoid a collision. This gave the car 1 which inevitably exceeds the car 81, a position which it immediately made.

Article 55.15 of the Sporting FIA regulation required that the car 81 takes place at a rate which involved no erratic braking or any other maneuver which is likely to endanger other drivers from the point where the lights of the safety car are extinct.

What the car 81 did was clearly a violation of this article. In accordance with the sanctions guidelines, we have imposed a penalty of 10 second time on the car 81.

Here is article 55.15 of FIA Sporting Regulations, in full:

When the course clerk decides that he is sure to call in the safety car, the message “Safety car in this Tour” will be sent to all competitors using the official messaging system and the orange lights of the car will be extinct. It will be the signal for competitors and drivers that he will enter the lane of the stands at the end of this tower.

At this point, the first online car behind the safety car can dictate the pace and, if necessary, fall from more than ten (10) car lengths behind.

In order to avoid the probability of accidents before the safety car returns to the stands, from the point where the car lights are revealed drivers must proceed at a rate that does not imply any acceleration or erratic braking or any other maneuver which is likely to endanger other drivers or prevent restart.

As the safety car is approaching the entrance road to the stand, the SC advice will be withdrawn and, apart from the last round of the sprint session or the race, as the leader approaches the line, the yellow flags will be removed and a green flag and / or a green lighting panel will be displayed on the line.

Race managers probably focused on this third paragraph, which includes the language that “drivers must proceed at a rate which implied no acceleration or erratic braking or any other [manoeuvre] This is likely to endanger other drivers or prevent restart. »»

Jolyon Palmer and David Coulthard, in the F1TV comments box, noted that, while the race resumed in the conditions of the green flag, Verstappen filmed almost immediately, which may have taken into account the way in which the race managers saw the incident, fairly or not.

Here is the spin of Verstappen:

Piastri certainly opposed the decision. While the towers cohated in Silverstone, he asked McLaren to issue team orders, restoring him from Norris because of a penalty with which he disagreed. The team refused the request, and speaking with former driver Jenson Button Trackside after the race, Piastri refused comments, noting that he did not want to have “trouble” for saying the bad thing.

Piastri maintained the second blow in front of the Sauber Nico Hülkenberg pilot, who finished third for the first podium in his long F1 career. But we can expect that this is not the final discussion of the ten seconds penalty.

Following the second place of Piastri – and the victory of Norris – the gap from Piastri to Norris in the classification of the F1 pilot championship was broken at only eight points.