Pit stop data shows Norris would have won regardless of Piastri penalty – The mantra coming from the McLaren F1 team this season has been repeatedly that the team comes first but their drivers are free to race. This by the way is a convenient methodology which  avoids issuing the controversial team orders to the drivers, something McLaren did reluctantly, but more than once last year.

With Max Verstappen stymied by the weather come race day in Silverstone with his low downforce setup used to claim pole position in the dry, Piastri made easy pickings of the Red Bull driver come the wet start of the 2025 British Grand Prix. As the world champion battled to raise his tyre temperatures, Norris was stuck behind the Red Bull driver as his team mate disappeared up the road over two seconds a lap quicker than the field.

As Max made a mistake in the Chapel corner, Norris swept by but extreme wet conditions saw the first safety car deployed soon after. Lap 11 of the race and Piastri, Norris and Verstappen all pitted for fresh intermediate weather tyres with Lando ahead of the world champion as they entered the pits. But a sticking front left wheel gun meant he emerged behind Verstappen after round of stops was complete.

 

 

 

Piastri made same error twice

There is an argument that had Norris been second instead of third, at the subsequent problematic restart, McLaren may have orchestrated things in a better fashion. That said, such was the sudden stop by Piastri as he prepared for the restart, even Lando Norris in third came close to passing his team mate too.

Would the stewards have investigated the matter had the driver overtaking under the safety car rules been Piastri’s team mate? Possibly not, but since Red Bull have warned the F1 stewards their driver may suffer from come ‘gamesmanship’ from his competitors following a brake check in Canada, this was exactly the kind of instance that would pique the interest of the stewards.

Piastri was handed down a ten second time penalty for “driving erratically” behind the safety car and in the post race media sessions it appeared most pundits agreed with the decision. The British journalists failed miserably in their questioning of the McLaren team players, as Lando Norris evaded the obvious question, “does it taint your home race victory because of Oscar’s penalty?”

Without proper forensic questioning, the McLaren management were able to spin their tale of woe as one which included inconsistent stewarding and apportioning blame to another driver. Piastri argued he braked with similar force on the first safety car restart, which the data later proved, yet this merely serves to suggest he could have been penalised twice not just once for erratic driving.

Schumacher Slams ‘DIRTY’ Piastri

 

 

 

McLaren boss attempts to blame Verstappen

Some twenty minutes late to his post race scheduled press conference, team principal Andreas Stella claimed he had been revisiting the incident in detail. “We’ll have to see also if other competitors kind of made the situation look worse than what it is,” said the McLaren boss. “Because we know that as part of the race craft of some competitors, there’s also the ability to make others look like they are causing a severe infringement when they are not.”

The veiled accusation directed at Max Verstappen in fact demeaned Stella and the McLaren management, who to date have plotted their path to the top of F1 with grace and humility. Yet the Piastri win without his punishment was not nailed on as the race hurtled towards the final round of pit stops.

With Verstappen spinning on the fateful restart, Norris immediately inherited second place behind his team mate, who subsequently built a gap of four seconds to Lando in a lengthy second stint. Yet as the team waited for the track to dry sufficiently to switch to slick tyres, Norris closed in on Piastri with the gap just over a second whilst the Aussie was told to push and build a gap to Hulkenberg in third place. Even so, Lando was able to close on him.

As other drivers had demonstrated in the handful of laps preceding Piastri’s stop, their outlaps on slick tyres in the damp conditions were slower than those around them on the ageing intermediate rubber. Indeed as the Aussie made his way out on his outlap, the gap between him and Norris peaked at around 32 seconds. 

Jenson Button sparks furious debate over Verstappen

 

 

 

Norris passed his team mate with the overcoat

This would have allowed Norris to pit and return to the race ahead of his team mate with more than the ten second gap represented by Piastri’s penalty. Further, knowing full well his team mate was receiving a time penalty, Norris’s in lap was sedentary compared to those when he was closing his team mate down. So he could have built an even bigger gap to Piastri had he wished.

Even without a penalty looming, McLaren would have stopped Oscar first, as is their protocol for a driver leading their team mate. It was the struggle to heat his tyres and remain on a slippery track which in fact cost Piastri his race win, although McLaren’s post race analysis failed to recognise this.

Norris was of course cock-a-hoop over his first win on home soil and during the cool down lap he sounded emotional over team radio. With the media never asking Lando the question, we’ll never known whether he would have justified his race win regardless of his team mates time penalty but the data shows he would without the ten seconds added to Piastri’s pit stop time, Norris would have been ahead when the pit cycle was over.

The complaining from McLaren and Piastri after the Silverstone Grand Prix left a stain on the team’s reputation to date, which is built on their self pronounced determination to be fair in how they go racing. They knew the data before giving the media interviews, but of course this opens another can of worms as to why Piastri was pitted first, when another lap for Norris was significantly advantageous.

 

 

 

Hamilton SLAMS Ferrari and announces ‘talks’

“The most complicated car I’ve ever driven” as Hamilton Slams Ferrari After Silverstone Struggles and Plans Urgent Talks – Lewis Hamilton may have finished fourth at his beloved home Grand Prix in Silverstone, but the seven-time world champion was far from satisfied with the experience. In fact, he was highly critical of Ferrari’s SF-25, describing it as “incredibly complicated” and downright unruly in wet conditions.

While the Silverstone crowd offered their usual patriotic roar for their knighted hero, Hamilton’s mood was dampened — much like the track. Instead of celebrating a solid points haul, he delivered a sharp public debrief aimed squarely at Maranello, and a crisis meeting is now firmly on the cards…. READ MORE