Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has taken aim at the inconsistency of F1 stewards after Oscar Piastri was slapped with a 10-second penalty while George Russell avoided sanctions for a similar incident. The Austrian spoke out in the aftermath of the British Grand Prix, which saw Lando Norris claim his fourth victory of the campaign.
Piastri was hit with a penalty after braking suddenly during a Safety Car restart and forcing Max Verstappen to swerve. But at the Canadian Grand Prix a month ago, Russell also hit the brakes suddenly as Verstappen had to quickly move past the Briton. But the stewards didn’t think the incident was worthy of any further action on that occasion.
Marko was unhappy that the two incidents were dealt with in different ways. And in his Speedweek column on Friday, the 82-year-old wrote: “The 10-second penalty for Piastri – it is not the first time that we have seen such a perilous scene behind the Safety Car.
“To be clear, I think the penalty was okay, but we would have liked to have seen a bit more continuity in the race stewards’ judgment.
“A similar situation with Russell in Canada was apparently not worth a penalty, but Piastri’s in England was? The fans don’t understand that and, frankly, neither do we.”
Piastri was furious after crossing the finish line after team-mate Norris at Silverstone. And the Australian told Jenson Button on Sky Sports after the race: “Apparently you can’t brake behind the Safety Car anymore.
“I did it for five laps before that. I’m not going to say too much because I’ll get myself in trouble.
“Thanks to the crowd for a great event, thanks for sticking through the weather. I still like Silverstone, even if I don’t like it today.”
After discovering Piastri’s penalty, Verstappen explained: “I only found out after the race that he got one. No one told me during the race.
“The thing is that it’s happened to me now a few times, this kind of scenario. I just find it strange that suddenly now Oscar is the first one to receive 10 seconds for it.”
And former Red Bull chief Christian Horner, who left the team this week, added: “I wasn’t surprised to see him get a penalty. That was what we would expect.
“It was probably more surprising that George didn’t get one in Montreal, to be honest with you. But that’s it.”
