20/06/2022
NEWS STORY
Forced to pit to repair damage to his car, Kevin Magnussen believes that race stewards are too easily influenced these days.
Battling with Lewis Hamilton at the start, the pair touched in Turn 3, resulting in the Dane sustaining damage to his front wing.
Though he held fifth position behind Hamilton, and was subsequently passed by George Russell, Magnussen was content with his car's performance following the clash.
However, in a radio call to his team, Esteban Ocon advised that he was concerned that the damaged piece of the Dane's front wing might fall off and hit him - shortly after the Haas driver was shown the black and orange flag demanding him to pit for reasons of safety.
Pitting, as requested, shortly after, Magnussen rejoined the race in last position finally ending the day a distant 17th.
"I just had a bit of contact, nothing serious," said the Dane at race end. "I scratched my front wing a little bit and then was told to pit.
"I was talking to Ocon just now and he was just joking how he told the FIA that it was really bad," he explained. "If you know you can influence the FIA like that, you're going to do it, aren't you? Which is what he did, fair play.
"But you've got to let us drive with that s***," he insisted, "it's nothing. I was keeping up, the car was fine. The front wing was safe, it was not broken off.
"Think back to Jeddah last year, Lewis Hamilton won the race without half a front wing, which I think is correct, you know. Let us race if we can."
Asked if he will seek clarification from the FIA, the Dane shrugged and suggested the decision making process is changing and inconsistent.
"I don't know," he said. "It feels suddenly very different. In Monaco they don't start us because it starts drizzling... here I'm called in because I have a scratch on my front wing."