Stella thinks Magnussen should be penalized for his on-track behavior

Kevin Magnussen adopted a tactic that did not please everyone during the sprint race of the Miami Grand Prix. Like in Jeddah, the Haas driver put up a fierce resistance, even deliberately incurring penalties, in order to let his teammate Nico Hülkenberg escape ahead of him during the sprint race.

Magnussen went off the track four times to avoid losing positions, which ultimately cost him a 35-second penalty, but he still managed to protect his teammate who scored points for seventh place. The stewards then opened an investigation but did not impose any additional penalties, deeming that Kevin Magnussen’s on-track behavior did not constitute unsportsmanlike conduct.

Andrea Stella strongly contested this, stating that the repeated tactics of the Dane show that the FIA must take action and adjust its regulations. « We have a case where the behavior is intentional in terms of harming another competitor and this behavior persists in the same race and is repeated throughout the same season. »

« How can penalties accumulate? They should be exponential. It’s not five plus five plus five equal to 15. It’s five plus five plus five equal to maybe you should spend a weekend at home with your family and reflect on sportsmanship before coming back. It’s completely unacceptable. It makes no sense from a sportsmanship point of view and should be penalized immediately. If you are not in the points, receiving 20 seconds or anything makes no difference. But for the competitors you have damaged, you have deliberately, perpetually, and repeatedly taken them out of their race. »

A clarification requested from the FIA

The commissioners of the Miami Grand Prix have just started a discussion around the notion of recurrence, which could give them the possibility to increase a penalty in the case of repeated offenses. “I am certain that the FIA will examine the issue and present a sensible proposal that the Advisory Sports Committee will evaluate. I hope that these proposals will soon become rules or guidelines that the commissioners can apply,” Stella explained to the media, including Motors Inside.

The obvious solution is for the race direction to ask the drivers to give up a position rather than letting the teams make the decision themselves and threatening penalties for a pit stop. That’s what we, the drivers, have asked for, but they don’t want to do it,” said Lando Norris.

His teammate Oscar Piastri pointed out that asking drivers to yield positions also has its issues, but in blatant cases like that of Magnussen, it should be a straightforward thing to implement. “There are some situations where giving up the position is very difficult,” Piastri explained. “If you go off track by 10 centimeters, and it’s not clear on television or if you’ve made the best overtaking move in the world, then will the fans say: Oh, that’s way too harsh. It’s very difficult to control like that, but if it’s blatant, then the FIA should have the power to intervene. The fact that it’s not the first time and the driver openly admits that he deserves the penalties and did it for the team, in my eyes, that’s not right.”

Magnussen had a messy Sunday in Miami. Penalized, this time for contact with Logan Sargeant’s Williams, which led to the American’s retirement, Magnussen then received another penalty. He indeed returned to the pits under Safety Car conditions, but his team did not change his tires, which is mandatory. The Haas driver is on probation with 10 penalty points out of a limit of 12. If a driver reaches this number of points, he is suspended from the next race and his point tally is then reset to zero.