F1 Pundit Slams Oscar Piastri for ‘Shocking’ Max Verstappen over Erratic Braking at British GP

Oscar Piastri suffered from an extremely disappointing end to the British GP. The Australian would’ve almost secured the race win in Silverstone if it weren’t for a ten-second penalty due to erratic braking under the Safety Car. Due to the said penalty, Piastri ceded defeat to his teammate Lando Norris. The 24-year-old received mixed opinions from everyone on the matter, as ex-F1 driver Anthony Davidson sided with Max Verstappen on the matter.

Max Verstappen started the British GP on pole position and could have had a great shot at achieving the race win if it weren’t for the treacherous racing conditions. The Dutchman lost the lead early on and couldn’t regain the lead. Moreover, during Oscar Piastri‘s sudden braking, Verstappen lost control of the car and spun out on the subsequent turn. Even the 27-year-old wasn’t too impressed with the situation as he berated the incident on team radio.

Anthony Davidson wasn’t mincing his words while criticizing Oscar Piastri and his tactics at the British GP. Davidson reckoned that at a very critical moment, Piastri made a blunder on track and could have caused a collision. Due to this, Max Verstappen was shocked and nearly avoided crashing into the rear of the McLaren Challenger. The Briton highlighted that any other previous incidents or near misses on the track were not as serious as the one that granted the Australian a time penalty.

This is the critical moment (pointing to the replay), It’s all a bit slow here. Safety Car disappears momentarily, Verstappen thinks ‘I get a bit of heat in the rear tyres’ at this point, and then out of nowhere, the McLaren starts to come at you. So it really did shock Max in that moment.

Anthony Davidson told Sky Sports

Davidson asserted that the safety car was much ahead during the incident, as Oscar Piastri did not have any legitimate reason to brake so hard. As such, the Briton agreed with the stewards’ decision to hit the 24-year-old with a ten-second time penalty. Moreover, the 46-year-old acknowledged that Piastri was indeed driving erratically at the moment and deserved the entire penalty.

You see how far ahead the Safety Car was at the time. I did tend to agree with the stewards’ decision, I thought it was slightly erratic driving.

Anthony Davidson added

Oscar Piastri asserts British GP incident ‘not much different’ to George Russell’s Canadian GP antics

Similar to Oscar Piastri’s excessive braking, even George Russell was investigated following a late-race braking incident at the Canadian GP. Red Bull lodged a double protest against the Mercedes star as he allegedly tried to force Max Verstappen to receive a penalty. However, Russell’s hard braking was just around 30 psi while Piastri used over 59 psi of braking power.