McLaren defend FIA stewards despite controversial Oscar Piastri penalty

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has defended the work the FIA stewards do after the controversial penalty for Oscar Piastri, but has promised talks to understand their decision. 

At Silverstone, Piastri was leading the wet British Grand Prix under a safety car after the huge crash for Isack Hadjar and Kimi Antonelli on Lap 19. 

The safety car was called in late at the end of Lap 21, with Piastri slamming on the brakes to slow from 218kph to 52kph, with huge amounts of spray. 

Fortunately, Verstappen was off to the right so not directly behind Piastri, and even labelled the 10-second time penalty the Australian received as "extreme", with Piastri also earning two penalty points, taking him to six for the 12-month period.

This penalty ruined his chances of winning the race, serving it at his final pit-stop as team-mate Lando Norris went on to benefit with the win. 

Post-race, Stella was nearly 20 minutes late to his written media debriefing as he investigated the circumstances, and has defended the stewards, although further talks are planned. 

"We have a situation which we judge as being a harsh penalty for one of our drivers," Stella told media, including RacingNews365. 

"But that doesn't change our opinion that the FIA and the stewards do a difficult job, they all try their best.

"They try their best to be consistent, and there are many different scenarios, and they all change with some subtleties, it is no different operating as a steward or the FIA or operating as a team. 

"It is always difficult to make the right calls, but what is important is that we keep the dialogue going, we will have a good conversation with the FIA and the stewards, and we will see how this situation could have been interpreted differently. 

"We said it would be appropriate to discuss after the race, because we should have checked the opinion of the drivers involved, and checked why the safety car was called in so late, and then put together all the elements so that the decision could have been as fair as possible."

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