F1 | Drivers call for rules review after Magnussen exclusion

Formula 1’s Super Licence penalty points system “must be reviewed” in the wake of an incident that triggered a one-race ban for Kevin Magnussen at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which other drivers described as “harsh”.

Magnussen came into contact with Pierre Gasly while attempting to make an overtake at the Variante della Roggia during the Italian Grand Prix, ultimately forcing both to take the escape road by cutting the chicane.

Although Magnussen continued and finished ninth, he was given a 10-second penalty as well as two points on his superlicence, dropping him to 10th and triggering a ban from the Baku race after accumulating 12 penalty points.

This is despite Gasly previously claiming it was “nothing” and that the penalty was “unfair”, something Magnussen’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg agreed with.

“Obviously, there’s a story, how he accumulated all those penalty points. But if you just look at the Monza incident, I think it’s part of racing.”

“I mean, it’s a pretty simple, fair and square maneuver. I don’t see a two-point penalty for that, or even a 10-second penalty – that’s very severe.”

“This is my opinion, but most drivers think the same way. I had a case with Fernando (Alonso) in Austria, in the Sprint, where I tried to make a move in the third corner, but I blocked and went a bit wide, and he had to go off the track.”

“But, I mean, racing is like that: to overtake, you have to get out of your comfort zone and take some risks. And sometimes that happens.”

“It seems a bit like the stewards, every time there’s a little contact, they want to get involved. They want to have a consequence, which I think the drivers don’t think is necessary for every contact. Maybe the penalty guidelines need to be reviewed and then changed, because we need to be able to race.”

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu agreed, adding: “I think based on the penalty guidelines, the penalty that was given for that particular incident, you can’t really argue about it. But it’s more about the fairness of the penalty.”

Yuki Tsunoda believes the 12-point system is too restrictive for a 24-race season, recalling that he was close to being banned in 2022 due to a series of infringements in his second F1 campaign.

In his opinion, for infringements such as track limits, the on-track penalty is sufficient to punish a driver and the stewards should apply the points on a case-by-case basis.

“I was in this situation, I almost got banned two years ago,” Tsunoda said. “If I understand correctly, the penalty points have not changed since they introduced the maximum points achievable.”

“It seems to me that this kind of penalty points should be a little more compliant, I think – it still seems a little bit harsh for 24 races. If with the track limits you get penalty points, then it’s too much. Because they penalize you enough in the race results already.”

“In that case, no penalty points are needed, but in the case of contact, yes. But you have to look at each case, for sure. In some cases, it would be enough to give one point instead of two, depending on the situation.”

George Russell agreed that the penalty for the accident itself was severe, but added that perhaps more blatant cases of “erratic” driving needed to be punished more – citing the fact that no one had been banned for dangerous incidents in 12 years.

He added that it was also about setting a precedent for those coming into F1 by ensuring that younger drivers do not arrive in the championship with bad habits.

“It’s a topic that has been discussed many times in past years, when pilots have been navigating by sight,” Russell explained.

“No one has been banned for 12 years, so you could argue whether the penalty points were severe enough. You could argue that the Monza penalty points seemed a bit too severe, but you could also argue that some of the other incidents were not severe enough.”

“So yes, I think we need to set a precedent for the training formulas as well. The guys in F4, F3 and F2 look up to us and they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with dangerous or irregular driving. And at some point you have to be punished for that.”