Oscar Piastri is going through one of the toughest phases of his 2025 Formula 1 season, with the risk of losing touch in the championship fight. The latest setback came at the Brazilian Grand Prix, where the Australian driver was handed a penalty for causing a collision. However, according to former Haas team principal Gunther Steiner, McLaren could – and should – have stepped in to defend their driver.
The incident took place during the second restart at Interlagos, when Oscar Piastri found himself battling with Kimi Antonelli and attempted an inside move into Turn 1. The 2001-born Mercedes driver locked up, and contact followed, triggering a chain reaction that ended Charles Leclerc’s race.
Oscar Piastri was judged to be fully responsible for the accident, receiving a severe ten-second penalty that dropped him to fifth place in the final classification. The stewards deemed that the McLaren driver was not in control of his car and was too far back at the apex. The FIA did not consider the possibility that Antonelli may have tightened his line suddenly on car #81.
Because of this, Gunther Steiner argued that McLaren should have taken a more active role in defending their driver. “Why don’t you go there and at least say something to the stewards?”, he said on The Red Flags podcast.
Steiner also pointed out that Charles Leclerc himself had suggested that Oscar Piastri was not at fault. “Even Charles Leclerc said, ‘I mean, it wasn’t Oscar’s fault.’ If the other driver, the one who got taken out, said: ‘Hey, he had nothing to do with it. Maybe I was a bit too optimistic.’ He didn’t say it because he wouldn’t admit it,” Gunther Steiner added, referring to Kimi Antonelli.
The former Haas boss then questioned the direction modern race-control decisions are taking. “At some point, with all these rules and interpretations, and ten seconds instead of five and all that stuff… where does racing end up? Then we might as well line up and just drive in order. Everyone finishes where they started. Make sure you don’t even look at anyone, because you might get a penalty. But fans don’t like that.”
Gunther Steiner insisted he would have fought for Oscar Piastri regardless of the outcome, purely because of how important such gestures are for a team’s morale. “I would have gone there and lost my mind,” he explained.
He added that defending a driver is also a psychological matter. “Obviously, sometimes I went too far, which doesn’t help. But by laying out the facts, you show that you know what you’re doing. You express your point of view. Will you win? You don’t know. But you must always try. That’s my opinion.” – the former Haas team principal concluded.
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