Andrea Stella acknowledged that Oscar Piastri made a decisive mistake at the Formula 1 Canadian GP and agreed with the penalty applied by the stewards. The Australian received a 10-second penalty after an incident with Alex Albon that definitively compromised his race.
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The team’s problems started right at the start, when the choice to start the race on slick tires did not bring the expected result. The strategy forced the competitor and his teammate Lando Norris to make an early stop, throwing both into the middle of the pack and forcing them to engage in a recovery race.
Piastri’s situation worsened when he braked late at the tight corner of the Montreal circuit and hit the side of Albon’s Williams. The Australian managed to continue in the race, but the Williams driver immediately retired. Assessing the situation, Stella then stated that the penalty was correct. “In Oscar’s incident, the stewards applied a penalty and it was deserved. I don’t think there is much more to add,” he said.
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“It was a judgment error. Obviously, there was some pressure to try to recover, but the incident was penalized by the stewards and also by the damage caused to the car,” he explained.
The manager believes the team could still have scored points without the accident, although he did not see potential to reach the pace shown by Franco Colapinto, who finished in sixth place. Besides the penalty, the damage to the car reduced Piastri’s performance and ended any real possibility of recovery throughout the race.
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