McLaren secured another one-two finish during the British Grand Prix. Following their double podium in Austria, drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri once again crossed the finish line first. However, the mood in Piastri’s garage was somewhat subdued. Due to an infraction behind the safety car, the Australian received a hefty time penalty. Team boss Andrea Stella believes Piastri was punished too severely and also wants to examine Max Verstappen‘s role in the incident.
“I just reviewed the footage of the incident,” Stella responded to the media in Silverstone. “I also went through the data. I must say that I find the penalty quite severe, as there are several factors that the stewards should have taken into account. For instance, the safety car was called in quite late, leaving Piastri with no time to properly prepare for the restart – he lost a lot of temperature in the tyres and brakes.”
And what about Verstappen?
Piastri was already in a difficult position, but according to Stella, the behaviour of the competition should also be taken into account in the assessment of the incident. He suggested that Verstappen might have accelerated to get McLaren penalised. “These circumstances apply to everyone, but we also need to see if other drivers didn’t make the situation look worse than necessary,” said Stella, referring to Verstappen.
“We know that some competitors take advantage of these situations,” the Italian added. “They try to make it look as if there is a more serious violation than is actually the case. So there are still a few things we want to look at, although the time penalty is of course fixed. We have accepted it, so now we can move on. We will see if we can learn something from this. As for Piastri – I think he will use this as motivation to come out stronger and win even more races in the future,” he concluded optimistically.
