Charles Leclerc deserved black-and-white flag for…

Charles Leclerc deserved black-and-white flag for collision, Oscar Piastri insists

Oscar Piastri expressed his disapproval regarding Belgian Grand Prix stewards’ decision not to even give Charles Leclerc a warning following their collision in Sunday’s Formula 1 race.

Leclerc and Piastri were battling for third place on lap eight when the McLaren driver positioned his car on the outside of the Ferrari coming into the braking zone at Les Combes. However, Leclerc’s rear-left tyre touched Piastri’s front-right wheel, causing floor damage to the MCL40, but stewards decided to take no action.

“On the approach to Turn 5, Car 81 moved to overtake Car 16 on the outside,” the FIA stewards’ report read. “Car 81 had some overlap on Car 16 but the front axle of Car 81 was not ahead of the front axle of Car 16 and there was no possibility of Car 81 completing an overtake from that position.

“In the stewards’ determination, Car 16 did not deliberately crowd Car 81 off the edge of the track. Car 16 followed the racing line before the entry to Turn 5 by moving slightly to the left to open up for Turn 5 and side to side contact occurred between the two cars.

“In the circumstances, the stewards determined to take no further action.”

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Oscar Piastri, McLaren (Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images)

Piastri perhaps wasn’t fully aware of the stewards’ reasoning when he spoke to the media after the race, but he clearly didn’t share their view.

“From where I was at, I was on the white line and got squeezed,” the Australian recounted. “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.”

According to seven-time grand prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya, Leclerc was entitled to leave Piastri “the absolute bare minimum space”, as the latter worded it, based on the rules. The Colombian told F1 TV that Piastri wasn’t nearly close enough to deserve racing room anyway.

“As [Leclerc] is far enough ahead, you know, when you have the position, you know what I mean; when you're the car passing, you need to be next to it, at least to the mirror, the tyre needs to be at least to the mirror of the driver for the other driver to respect your room,” Montoya pondered.

“You know what's the problem? The racing room is a car width, and when they [had] contact, this car width, it was still there. It was tight, but it was there. That's the problem. The rule doesn't say you need to give a car width and 20 inches so they don't touch. The rule says it's a car width.

Juan Pablo Montoya (Photo by: Erik Junius)

“So it's a really grey area, and come on, let's be honest, where the hell was he going? And especially half a car back before the braking. If you're in position, you attack. But there?”

Leclerc went on to lead the race for 13 laps, courtesy of a fortunately-timed virtual safety car intervention, and finished second behind Kimi Antonelli, while Piastri ended up down in fifth with poor pace at the end of each stint. The damage from the earlier collision cost him two to three tenths a lap, McLaren stated.

“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,” Piastri explained.

“I think the second stint looked a fair bit better just once Lewis got ahead. 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.”

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording