Oscar Piastri will escape a grid drop for the next Formula 1 race in Singapore despite not being able to serve a jumped start penalty in the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The F1 world championship leader had a disastrous opening lap in Baku after jumping the start from his ninth place on the grid then crashing out soon after.
Having moved forwards before the lights went out, Piastri stopped his McLaren and appeared to hit anti-stall – slowing his getaway and dropping him to the back of the field.
As he tried to make up places on the opening lap, he locked up on the entry to Turn 5 and slid head first into the crash barriers.
It was Piastri's first retirement of the season and handed a golden opportunity to his rivals to close the points gap.
Despite Piastri being out of the race, the stewards still investigated his jumped start and decided he breached the regulations and would be given a five-second penalty.
With him out of the race, though, Piastri was never going to be able to serve the penalty.
In theory, the rules state that in such circumstances a time penalty not served can be converted into a grid drop for the next race.
F1’s Sporting Regulations state if a driver is unable to serve a penalty because of being unclassified or a retirement then “the stewards may impose a grid place penalty on the driver at their next race.”
However, in the FIA’s stewards’ guidelines document that was published earlier this year and explains the criteria for stewards’ calls, it was clarified why minor one-off offences like Piastri’s will not be converted.
Article 8 in the “Important Notes” section of the penalty guidelines states: “In cases where there is a single 5s penalty which a driver is unable to serve due to retirement, the Stewards will not convert that into a grid penalty for a subsequent race.
“However, if there is more than one penalty, the Stewards may convert the 5s (and other) penalties into a grid penalty.”
Fernando Alonso was also handed a five-second penalty for jumping the start after he rolled forward in reaction to Piastri’s movement.
