Formula 1’s penalty point system «need to be reviewed» in the wake of the incident that triggered Kevin Magnussen’s one-race ban for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix — which other drivers described as «harsh».
Magnussen made contact with Pierre Gasly at the Variante della Roggia during the Italian Grand Prix in a bid to make an overtake, ultimately forcing both to take to the run-off cutting the chicane.
Although Magnussen continued his progress and finished ninth on the road, he was handed a 10-second penalty and the application of two points to his superlicence — relegating him to 10th in the order and triggering his ban for Baku after reaching 12 penalty points.
This came despite Gasly’s earlier assertion that it was «nothing» and the penalty was «unfair» — something that Magnussen’s team-mate Nico Hulkenberg agreed with.
«Obviously, there’s a history of how that happened and he accumulated all those penalty points but if you look just isolated at the Monza incident, I think, that’s racing.
«I mean, it’s pretty straightforward, fair and square racing. I don’t see two penalty points for that, or that 10-second penalty even — that’s very harsh.
«That’s my opinion, but most drivers feel the same way about that. I had a case with Fernando [Alonso] in Austria, in the sprint race, where I kind of tried to make a move in turn three, and locked up and went a bit wide, and he had to go off the track.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine A524, Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
«But, I mean, that’s racing; to overtake we have to leave the comfort zone and take some risk and then that kind of happens sometimes.
«It seems a bit that the stewards, whenever there’s a little contact, they want to get involved. They want to have a consequence for it, which I think the drivers feel is not really 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 boss Ayao Komatsu concurred, adding: «I think according to the penalty guideline, the penalty that was given on that particular incident, I can’t really argue. But it’s more a question of if that penalty guideline is correct.»
Yuki Tsunoda reckoned that the 12-point system was too restrictive for a 24-race season, recalling that he was close to a ban in 2022 thanks to a series of infractions in his sophomore campaign.
He felt that for infractions like track limits, the on-track penalty was sufficient to punish a driver — and that the stewards should apply points on a case-by-case basis.
«I was in that situation, I almost got banned two years ago,» Tsunoda said. «If I understood correctly, the penalty points didn’t seem to change from once they introduced the maximum points they can reach.
«It feels like that penalty points should get a little bit more compliant, I guess — it seems still kind of strict for 24 races, but at the same time, they had to do it [ban Magnussen] I guess.
«If the track limits get penalty points, that’s too much then. You get enough penalty in the race in race results.
«I don’t think it’s necessary to put it the penalty points, but collision like now, I guess it’s good to have, but case by case, for sure.
«But also, it seems to look case by case anyway, because some of the cases that they put to the driver one point instead of two, it depends on the situation.»
George Russell agreed that the penalty for the incident in isolation was harsh, but added that perhaps more obvious cases of «erratic» driving needed to be punished more — citing that nobody had been banned for dangerous incidents in 12 years.
He added that this was also about setting a precedent for those on the path to F1, ensuring that younger drivers would not arrive in the championship with bad habits.
«It’s a conversation that’s been had a number of times in previous years, as drivers have sailed close to the wind,» Russell explained.
«No one’s been banned in 12 years, so you could argue, were the penalty points actually harsh enough? You could argue for sure his penalty points from Monza seemed a little bit harsh, but you could also argue some of the other incidents perhaps were not harsh enough.
«So yeah, I think also we need to set a bit of a precedent as well for the junior series. Those guys look up to us in F4, F3, F2 and you shouldn’t be allowed to get away with dangerous or erratic driving and at some point, you do need to be punished for it.»