Oscar Piastri thought he was in control in the F1 Brazil GP incident, as he and Andrea Stella reckon it was a bit harsh to penalise only the Australian.
It was a decent start for McLaren’s Piastri in F1 Brazil GP at Interlagos, where he hung on to fourth. He had a chance to push for second on safety car re-start when Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli was slow into Turn 1. The Australian went to the inside, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took the outside line.
But unfortunately, the door was closed on Piastri into Turn 1, when Antonelli attempted to take the corner as per his racing line. The two made contact, which sent the Italian into Leclerc, who lost his front-left wheel and the suspension broke. The Australian moved up to second at the end of it.
He pushed Lando Norris on Virtual Safety Car re-start, but it was short-lived as he was handed a 10s time penalty for wholly responsible for the incident. The stewards felt he wasn’t fully alongside to challenge Antonelli for the corner and space. Naturally, Piastri was disappointed by the call.
He felt he was in control and that he will not change anything in hindsight. “In my opinion, I had a very clear opportunity up the inside,” said Piastri to media. “Yes, there was a lock up, but I was firmly on the apex, on the white line. I couldn’t go any further left, and I can’t just disappear. The decision is what it is.
“It was one of a number of difficult moments through today and this weekend, but I wouldn’t have done anything differently if I had another chance. I’d say I was losing ground, yes, but that was because, I think, the other two were braking very late. It was a bit damp on the inside, so I was probably a bit cautious with that, but obviously when you’re on the outside, you can take much more liberty and again, there was a lock-up.
“But I think the fact I managed to keep it stuck up the inside white line with a lock-up… I was pretty firmly in control if I can keep my line, so it is what it is. I don’t know. No matter what way you look at that, I’m not sure where I’m supposed to go, because when you have that good of a run into Turn 1 and you’re fully alongside, you’re not just going to back out.
“I think to try and go in any deeper than I did would have been ambitious, and I was where I was, so I think in that scenario, if I was clearly understeering and missing the apex and then hit Kimi, sure I’d understand, but the fact that I was as far left as I could’ve gone makes it tough,” summed up Piastri, who was undone in sprint by an incident and the main race got compromised due to penalty.
He feels small moments is creating big consequences for him. “The decision [of trying the move] today, I am already at peace with it,” said Piastri. “Probably, the part of the track I shouldn’t have been on when I saw how much water got kicked up by Lando. Whether you could call it an excuse or reason for crashing, I don’t know.
“I think I’ll still call it an excuse, yeah it is just very-very fine line, it is tough moments, I think it could easily go either way in creating big consequences at the moment,” summed up Piastri, who is now 24 points behind teammate Norris. After a tough run in Austin and Mexico, things felt better in Brazil, but it wasn’t consistent enough and he lost out in the crucial first stint, where he had to gain the maximum on his rivals. He dropped down to as low as eighth but recovered to finish fifth eventually.
He couldn’t get through George Russell and Max Verstappen’s recovery meant the Dutchman was unbeatable. “Things not been gone easily, that’s for sure,” continued Piastri. “This weekend there were definitely moments and flashes where I felt very comfortable like in practice, things were coming much more easily again, things felt really good. It kind of went away little bit from us through the weekend.
“We didn’t have pace as a team, I don’t think was as strong as on Friday and the car went in the direction that I wasn’t a big fan of. But we tried our best to get the car in the good window, obviously the sprint crash made things much more difficult as well, so it was just a lot of things going wrong at the moment. But I think there’s still flashes of really strong pace and it is just about trying to make sure that I get that all the time,” summed up Piastri.
Team boss Stella concurred with Piastri on the penalty matter and how the incident was not wholly Piastri’s fault. On the Australian’s pace, he noted that the flat-spot cost him in the first stint and that some of his work on low-grip surface materialised in the grand prix.
“In terms of the penalty, I would say that definitely on the harsh side,” said Stella to media. “Oscar, it’s true, we see a little lock-up, but at the same time he’s able to maintain the trajectory, which is ultimately what counts. I think the responsibility should be shared with Kimi because Kimi kind of knew that Oscar was on the inside and the collision probably could have been avoided. Perhaps Kimi was also worried of having Leclerc on the outside. A difficult situation, obviously, but I think overall the penalty is harsh for Oscar to be considered fully to blame for this incident.
“At the same time, now it’s done, so I reiterate the respect that we have for the stewards, we accept it, we move on. From a pace point of view, I think the pace was quite encouraging in the second and third stint. In the first stint, Oscar was carrying some damage on the tyre that was locked.
“He was also kind of thinking that the stint would have been long, but in the second and third stint, I think the performance was good. Just talking right now with Oscar, some of the adaptations that we talked about in these low-grip conditions, I think he was able to execute them during the race.
“I think we take away from this event encouraging indications from a performance point of view and race pace point of view, and then I think we head to circuits where the behaviour of the tyres should be more normal now. In fairness, we go to Vegas. I was already thinking of Qatar and Abu Dhabi, but we go to Vegas, so in Vegas we will see.
“It could be a regime of its own, like it’s been in the past with heavy amount of graining. I think it will be a bit of a stand-alone race, but some good learning across these three races for Oscar, and this makes us optimistic for the final three races,” summed up Stella.
Here’s stewards note (has six penalty points now): https://www.fia.com/system/files/decision-document/2025_sao_paulo_grand_prix_-_corrected_race_-_infringement_-_car_81_-_causing_a_collision_with_car_12_in_turn_1.pdf
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-sao-paulo-grand-prix-polesitter-norris-leads-away-from-antonelli-on-the-race-start.1848333750055262302
Here’s incident: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-sao-paulo-grand-prix-leclerc-out-and-piastri-up-to-p2-after-dramatic-restart.1848334755685601334
Here’s how F1 Brazil GP panned out
