Kevin Magnussen has been given three penalty points on his licence after the stewards described his string of infringements in the sprint race as “exceptional circumstances.”
The Haas driver remains under investigation for “unsportsmanlike behaviour” after he collected four penalties for leaving the track during the sprint race.Three of those were 10-second time penalties for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, which Magnussen did while fighting Lewis Hamilton for position. The stewards noted that “the penalty guidelines for such infringements… provide a baseline of a 10 second penalty with zero penalty points.”
However, they said the guidelines also state: “The points indicated are intended to be the norm for a particular offence. The stewards may vary these, taking into account mitigating or aggravating circumstances. However, the authority of the stewards to increase the points assessed is intended to be used only in exceptional circumstances.”
“Taking into account the fact that this was the third instance of leaving the track and gaining an advantage in a single session, which we considered to be an aggravating circumstance, we impose three penalty points.”
The sanction leaves Magnussen on a total of eight penalty points. He will not lose any of those before the season ends, meaning he will receive an automatic ban if he collects four more penalty points this year.
Speaking before the penalty points were issued, Magnussen said the time penalties were justifies, and that he had been trying to help his team mate Nico Hulkenberg by keeping Hamilton behind.
This article will be updated.
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JA
4th May 2024, 22:04
Three penalty points to his name, because the stewards failed to give Hamilton a penalty for causing a crash taking out two other cars. I understand the need to make a move against illegal defending (and it needs to be dealt with differently), but man that overall inconsistent stewarding is just unfathomable.
Sham (@sham)
4th May 2024, 22:48
I agree that Hamilton deserved a penalty, but it would have been a time penalty – which wouldn’t have altered track position since he wouldn’t have made a pitstop.
KMag drove in the way he drove on purpose, making it unsportsmanlike behaviour.
Hamilton made a mistake.
JA
5th May 2024, 8:47
Magnussen wouldnt have had to defend as hard as Hamilton wasnt going to be 10 seconds ahead by the end, but to me his mistake warrents more than just a time penalty. It shouldnt at the very least been a drivethrough. Hamilton took out two cars and destroyed another drivers race while getting nothing. Kvyat when he torpedoed people didnt get the same kind of treatment, neither did Stroll last race from a mistake. Magnussen only hindered two drivers from overtaking.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
5th May 2024, 9:54
JA, Kevin was driving to protect his team-mate. Had Lewis passed both Nico and his team-mate, Haas would have scored 1 point from the sprint. By keeping Lewis behind, Kevin guaranteed Haas a minimum of 2 points (3 had Kevin been able to do so without penalties), regardless of whether Nico had been able to similarly defend against Lewis or not. (Passing one but not the other would have had the same result).
Lewis’ penalty situation was only relevant if it was possible to guarantee Lewis not being 10 seconds up the road of either Haas by the time the race was completed and there was a guarantee the penalties wouldn’t have been generated fending off Yuki or anyone else. None of these are certain, even if Haas keeping the points in the event of Lewis getting a Lap 1 penalty was the highest-probability scenario, given that Lewis had 12 laps to complete the task.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
5th May 2024, 4:00
Yes, LH contributed to this, but you do know there was already an incident between the to Aston’s before LH arrived.
Ben
4th May 2024, 22:25
Penalty points are pointless. They’ll never actually hand out a ban. They chop and change between 3,2 or 1 depending on how many a driver already has. It should have been 9 today or at least 6. When do they hand out 1 point per incident? It’s always 2 or 3.
He could do with a ban but I think it needs to be a ban on the car so Haas learn they need to go racing and not play these idiotic games.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
5th May 2024, 4:09
Much like hamburgers are hamless? (A poor analogy I know, as hamburgers contain no ham, but each penalty point is made up of one complete point).
I believe they will, but with caveats. The final points will be due to an indisputable scenario, not a subjective decision. The points system will be reviewed as a result under dubious pretenses but ultimately to establish additional loopholes or room for maneuver.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
5th May 2024, 9:54
I felt it should have been a black flag.
MichaelN
4th May 2024, 22:53
Good decision, even if we know they’ll shy away from letting it get to a ban.
The conduct of Magnussen here, as in Saudi Arabia, reflect poorly on the entire team.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
4th May 2024, 23:32
Yep. Next offence will be two penalty points, then one, then half a point… I’d like to see him get banned so Bearman can do another Grand Prix this year.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:44
Ahah, if they get to give out half a point that would be so embarrassing for the stewards!
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
5th May 2024, 9:56
@esploratore1 Especially since there’s no scope to do so, and so much more scope to simply fail to assign any penalty at all to the driver with lots of points due to mitigating circumstances, blaming the victim or declaring it a racing incident.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:44
Ahah, if they get to give out half a point that would be so embarrassing for the stewards!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:45
My mouse button is problematic since a while, it often happens that it double clicks when it’s meant to be only once, hence the double comment, normally it’d say “duplicate comment detected” and not post it.
PacificPR (@streydt)
4th May 2024, 23:02
So much for F1. What is next. One can only defend for a position twice? One can only pass in a DRS zone? One can only pass when the other driver has clearly indicated it is okay to pass? Of course Magnussen’s defensive driving had little to do with racing for a position and he was playing the team game. But it is dangerous to go down this route – before we know it my stupid examples become reality and F1 becomes a jury sports and we can all start watching show jumping instead.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
5th May 2024, 4:19
@streydt I do agree with you (and appreciate the jury/show jumping comparison).
Whilst I do often argue for or against debates that involve whether a driver has been within or outside of a rule, I only argue this because there IS a rule. As I have noted elsewhere I actually rather enjoyed the LH / KM battle despite it clearly pushing / breaching the boundaries of the current ruleset. And I actually think – though I reserve the right to reflect differently on my hastily formulate view – that as long as dangerous driving was avoided, I would prefer racing to lean this way rather than further away from it.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
5th May 2024, 9:57
@streydt “One can only defend for a position twice?” is already the best-case scenario – for some, in some circumstances, defending once is apparently forbidden.
Kribana (@krichelle)
4th May 2024, 23:12
The corner cut at the chicane was absolutely crazy. Last time I remember someone doing something similar was Hamilton in 2021 in Abu Dhabi but that was because he had nowhere to go. It’s not like Magnussen had nowhere to go at the chicane. That was really unnecessary. But I think the team also needs a penalty for this.
Lewisham Milton
4th May 2024, 23:22
It’s also a sign that, just like Abu Dhabi, the track design is rubbish.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
4th May 2024, 23:25
Magnussen is becoming a bit of a liability I fear, 2012 Grosjean style. Today’s driving reminded me of his string of incidents in Saudi Arabia. He just doesn’t seem to know when to yield. I’m all for robust defensive driving but he just seems to take it a bit too far. He had plenty of opportunity to yield the first Hamilton overtake but instead he rejoined and made unnecessary contact. He actually looks kinda amateurish….
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:47
I don’t see it as amateurish, I see it as taking advantage of the inadequate rules: he can do whatever illegal stuff he wants if he’s out of the points, meanwhile hulkenberg runs safely in 7th place, until they give penalties affecting the whole team it’s pointless.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
5th May 2024, 9:57
@tommy-c He knows exactly when to yield, he just knows that today it was in his interests to yield never.
ludewig
5th May 2024, 1:42
This is a proper use of the penalties. KMag wanted to defend his team mate, which is fine, but he did it by driving beyond poorly, because he didn’t care about any penalties to himself. This way, he is actually punished.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:49
No, he’s not, he didn’t lose any points because he was already out, he won’t get any race ban because whenever he has enough and commits an infraction leading to hit 12 points they will ignore it or give less points than usual so that he won’t hit 12.
Also, a race ban for a driver in a car that rarely gets points? Surely allowing your team mate to bring home 10 points and getting a race ban is a good tradeoff.