After summoning and interviewing Kevin Magnussen last night in Miami, suspecting him of “unsportsmanlike behavior” during the sprint race, the stewards took no sanctions. However, they raised the problem posed by the tactics used during the Dane’s defense against Lewis Hamilton.
By resisting the seven-time World Champion by all means, the Haas driver deliberately broke several rules in order to preserve the seventh place occupied in front of him by his teammate Nico Hülkenberg. In total, the commissioners imposed three penalties of 10 seconds each for “having left the track taking an advantage”, and one of 5 seconds for not respecting the limits of the track. They were applied, dropping him to 18th final place. Three penalty points on his Super License were also handed out, bringing Kevin Magnussen’s total to eight.
Upon arrival, the pilot admitted to having used “stupid tactics” and believed that “all these penalties are deserved”, insisting he had played the team’s game. Even though Lewis Hamilton found nothing wrong with this attitude, the commissioners opened an investigation.
“The driver honestly explained that he believed he had the right to race against the No. 44 car in the manner in which he did and that he was prepared to accept what he considered to be standard penalties imposed for any offense committed while fighting for position”explain the commissioners. “He also indicated that the act of creating a gap between him and the cars in front of him was perfectly within the regulations and that it was not unusual for a driver to seek to help his teammate in the race by acting in this way. .”
“At no time did he think he was doing anything wrong or that it was unsporting behavior. He highlighted the fact that stewards generally do not increase the severity of sanctions in cases of recidivism.”
VIDEO – The summary of the Miami GP sprint race
The commissioners, including Vitantonio Liuzzi this weekend, did not impose any additional sanctions on Kevin Magnussen because they considered that there was no “no clear evidence or intent that could be described as unsportsmanlike.” However, they emphasized the fact that they were “at variance” with “the way car #20 was driven”.
Above all, as they are now accustomed to doing during out-of-the-ordinary investigations, the commissioners made recommendations to the FIA, here around the possibility of increasing penalties in the event of repeated infractions.
“In the future, the commissioners will need to consider whether, in appropriate situations, particularly in cases of repeated infringements, the penalties to be applied for each infringement should be increased in order to discourage scenarios such as those we have seen today “they plead. “This is an issue we will raise explicitly with the FIA and the stewards team.”
