Piastri admits British GP team orders “wouldn’t have been fair” to Norris

Oscar Piastri conceded that his request for McLaren team orders “wouldn’t have been fair” to team-mate Lando Norris, after the Australian’s 10-second penalty for a safety car infringement effectively handed over Formula 1 British Grand Prix victory.

The F1 world championship leader saw his advantage trimmed to eight points by losing the win in Silverstone to Norris, after he braked down Hangar Straight on lap 21 just as the lights went out on the safety car to signal a restart.

The move saw Max Verstappen narrowly miss colliding with the McLaren driver and accidentally overtake him. The FIA stewards judged Piastri was driving erratically behind the safety car so slapped him with a 10-second penalty.

After pitting from the lead and serving his penalty, and returning to the track behind Norris, Piastri asked the team to implement team orders. “I don’t think the penalty before was very fair. I know it’s a big question, but if you don’t think it was fair either, I think we should swap back and race,” he said on the team radio. His race engineer, Tom Stallard, later informed him that McLaren would not be issuing a swap.

“I thought I would ask the question,” Piastri told reporters, when asked about the request after the race. “I knew what the answer was going to be before I asked, but I just wanted a small glimmer of hope that maybe I could get it back. But no, I knew it wasn’t going to happen.”

The 24-year-old, who was visibly frustrated and upset with his runner-up finish, said the team handled the situation correctly, even though it didn’t work out in his favour.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it,” he said. “Lando didn’t do anything wrong. So I don’t think it would have been particularly fair to have swapped.”

Despite Piastri’s dejection, he insisted the result won’t impact his attitude towards the battle for the championship: “It doesn’t change much for the championship. I feel like I did a good job today, and I’ll use the frustration to make sure I win some more races later.

“It obviously hurts at the moment. It’s a different hurt though, because I know I deserved a lot more than what I got today. I drove a really strong race, and when you don’t get the result you think you deserve, it hurts, especially when it’s not in your control.”

Piastri congratulated Norris immediately after the race, but didn’t acknowledge his team-mate throughout the post-race press conference. Rather, he attempted to shift the conversation to Nico Hulkenberg, who finally stood on an F1 podium after 239 race starts.

“I have a question for Nico: how does it feel after 15 years of F1 to get on the podium, and the trophy is made out of LEGO that you can pull apart?” Piastri asked, to which the Sauber driver responded: “I love LEGO. It’s good, my daughter can play with it. You’re always going to see the bright side, but a bit of silver or gold would have been nice too.”