Steiner explains why Piastri shouldn’t have been penalized at Silvestone

09:35, 11 Jul

Updated: 11:25, 11 Jul

byTobia Elia

Guenther Steiner also commented on the penalty handed to Oscar Piastri for the controversial braking under the Safety Car during last weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Amid the chaos surrounding Christian Horner’s sudden dismissal as Red Bull CEO and team principal, the on-track action and the verdict from the Silverstone Grand Prix were almost forgotten.

The main focus remains on the penalty given to Oscar Piastri, who slammed on the brakes suddenly and harshly under the safety car, catching Max Verstappen off guard and forcing him to swerve right to avoid a collision.

After reviewing the incident, the stewards chose to penalize the McLaren driver—not Verstappen as many had initially expected—splitting public opinion.

Steiner disagrees with the stewards

Speaking on the Red Flag podcast, Guenther Steiner also weighed in on the controversy: ''What I saw, because obviously I don't have access to the real data, so I just saw data on the internet that Oscar didn't do a lot of different than his first time the safety car came out.''

''His braking was similar. I think the difference was this time, Max, or the second time, Max was a lot faster, so it looked very dramatic. It looked very dramatic, to be honest. And I think the stewards should not decide on drama, they should decide on facts''

According to the former Haas team principal, Piastri did nothing wrong: ''Everything worked against Oscar. And could he have done it a little bit smoother? Yes, but was it erratic driving? In my opinion, not.''

''I mean, he was slowing down to get himself in a position to get the best start. And that's what the race car driver is doing and has to do, because that's what he's there for to do. He's not there to be the nice guy to the guy which is behind him.''

Finally, he added: ''If they didn't like what they saw the first time around, they should have given a warning to Oscar, said, 'dude, do not do this again'. This is you on the edge or you're already over, but do not do this again.''

''And then the second time he's doing it, he gets 10 seconds, the same penalty like somebody gets taking somebody else on purpose. For me, it was not the right thing.''