Oscar Piastri believes Charles Leclerc escaped too easily after their tense Belgian Grand Prix battle, arguing that the Ferrari driver should have received at least a warning for squeezing him during their fight for third place at Spa-Francorchamps.
The McLaren star was left frustrated after the stewards opted to take no action following contact between the two cars on lap eight, with Piastri insisting the incident carried unnecessary risk.
As the pair charged up the Kemmel Straight towards Les Combes, Piastri moved to the outside in an attempt to complete the pass, only for Leclerc’s rear-left tyre to make contact with the McLaren’s front-right wheel.
The touch damaged Piastri’s MCL40 floor and ultimately compromised his race, but officials ruled that no further intervention was required.
For Piastri, however, the bigger concern was the message sent by the stewards by allowing the incident to go unpunished.
‘I don’t really know where I was supposed to go’
While the stewards concluded that Leclerc had followed the racing line and had not intentionally forced Piastri off the track, the Australian saw the situation very differently from behind the wheel.
“From where I was at, I was on the white line and got squeezed,” Piastri said. “I think we were firstly very lucky not to have a bigger crash because, you know, we touched wheels in the start of the breaking zone basically.
“But I don't really know where I was supposed to go, so the fact that was no... I'm not saying it needed to be a penalty necessarily, but at least a black-and-white flag or something like that, because if we think that that's fine… I mean, it's one thing having touches like that, but even just the incentive of knowing that you can leave everyone the absolute bare minimum space and get away with it, that's not the nicest place to be, I don't think.”
Piastri’s frustration was not simply about the loss of track position. Instead, he appeared concerned that failing to address such moments could encourage drivers to push the limits of defensive driving even further.
Damage leaves Piastri fighting uphill battle
The contact between the two drivers proved costly for Piastri’s afternoon. Although Leclerc went on to lead 13 laps after benefiting from a well-timed Virtual Safety Car period and eventually finished second, Piastri slipped back to fifth after struggling for pace later in his stints.
McLaren estimated that the damage from the clash cost him around two to three tenths of a second per lap, leaving him battling an impaired car for much of the race.
Piastri explained that the effect was particularly noticeable during the opening stint.
“The first stint, I think the damage was the big player, because I lost a decent bit of downforce but it impacted the balance of the car a fair bit, so I was struggling a lot from then on until we could change the front wing and compensate a little bit,” he said.
The McLaren driver found some improvement later, but traffic and the compromised condition of the car continued to make life difficult.
“I think the second stint looked a fair bit better just once Lewis got ahead,” he added.
“The car was tricky to drive in clean air, and once Lewis got ahead and I was in the heavy following, it was incredibly tough again, and once I kind of dropped back a second and a half or two seconds, the pace stabilised again.
“But then even still, the car was still damaged so that was definitely a factor. But I agree we looked very competitive at the start of the stints and maybe not quite as good at the end.”
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