Andrea Stella did not appreciate seeing the sad spectacle put on by Kevin Magnussen during the Miami Sprint. The McLaren F1 director attacked the Haas driver, who admitted having gone beyond the limit himself to defend his teammate Nico Hülkenberg.
This is not the first time such tactics have been employed at Haas this season, with Magnussen having already exceeded the limits of acceptable in Jeddah by overtaking off track to block the peloton, which Stella does not accept.
“We have a case of intentional behavior to harm another competitor” Stella annoys, before making a reference to Jeddah. “This behavior is perpetrated within the same race, and repeated during the same season.”
“How can penalties be cumulative? They should be exponential. It’s not 5+5+5=15. 5+5+5: Maybe you need to spend a weekend at home with your family, to think about your fair play, and then come back.”
The Italian would be for a form of probation when a driver exceeds the limits and is suspended: “And if you are seen to become loyal, fair and respectful of your rivals, then you can stay in this sport. This is totally unacceptable.”
Stella continued with a criticism of F1’s penalty system, which includes points on licenses, and insinuated that perhaps it was time for the FIA to review its process. The commissioners themselves admitted this in their decision made last night (read here).
“The penalty points are still in place. It’s in place so I don’t know exactly the situation of some drivers. I have to admit. But who has ever really suffered the consequences in F1? Nobody. It certainly can mean that the settings may need to be adjusted.”
“Intentionally damaging competitors’ race just doesn’t make sense from a sportsmanship standpoint and it needs to be addressed immediately because if you’re out of the points and you get 20 seconds or whatever at the end of your race, it’s not going to make a difference.
“But for the competitors that you embarrassed, you put them out of the race. Again, in a deliberate, perpetuated and repeated way. This is completely unacceptable.”
Stella went on to say that the FIA could perhaps have been surprised that the same driver and team were committed to the same tactics in just one quarter of the season and thinks it’s a question on which the governing body will consider.
“I want to reiterate these values of fairness, it’s a sport, it’s a competition and we need to give everyone a fair chance to compete.”
“These values must be taken into account when creating an appropriate set of regulations.”
“But I am sure the FIA will look at this and come up with a sensible proposal which the Sporting Advisory Committee can assess and I hope this will soon become rules or guidelines which the stewards can apply.”
Alongside his boss, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri added that Magnussen’s comments after the Sprint created a “very risky precedent”given the implications of drivers publicly accepting penalties in order to benefit their teams – with Nico Hulkenberg having been the beneficiary of his teammate’s moves in Miami.
“I actually saw his comments after the race, saying he deserved to take all the penalties he received. I think the fact that the driver taking the penalties is saying he deserves all the penalties , that’s the kind of path they chose to take… it doesn’t set a very good precedent for everyone.”
“It sets a very risky precedent that I think should probably be policed a little harder.”
The culprit, Kevin Magnussen, agreed with his opponents and said he would appreciate greater clarity on what is and is not permitted in such circumstances.
“It should be clear that you have to change the way you drive, whether you have one penalty, two penalties, or three penalties. I agree that there could be an improvement in the rules if you fight and do something which is not allowed.
“It would be great if the FIA had the power to tell you to surrender or swap your positions. This way it will have an immediate effect and stop any type of play. But for now I don’t know why, They refuse to enforce this.”
