05/05/2024
NEWS STORY
While clearing Kevin Magnussen of "unsportsmanlike behaviour" the Miami stewards are to raise their concerns with the FIA that the regulations need tweaking.
Though his antics kept most of us entertained - even Lewis Hamilton - the Miami stewards were not impressed by Kevin Magnussen during the Sprint.
Other than three 10 second penalties for leaving the track and gaining an advantage as he battled the Mercedes driver, the Dane was also hit with a further 5 second penalty for continued violations of the track limits.
Speaking in the moments after the race, Magnussen (unwisely) admitted that all four penalties were "well deserved", the Dane adding: "I started using these stupid tactics, which I don't like doing, but at the end of the day, I did my job as a team player."
Opinion among fans, fellow drivers and team bosses was divided, while the stewards subsequently summoned the Haas driver for "alleged unsportsmanlike behaviour".
The stewards later explained that "the driver candidly explained that he thought that he was entitled to race with Hamilton in the manner that he did and also that he was willing to accept what he considered to be standard penalties that would have been imposed on him for any infringements that occurred while he was battling for position.
"He was also of the view that building a gap between himself and the cars ahead (notably his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg) was perfectly within the regulations and it was not uncommon for a driver to seek to assist his team-mate in the course of a race by doing so.
"He did not at any point in time think that what he was doing was wrong or that it was in any way unsportsmanlike. He highlighted that the Stewards would typically not increase the severity of the penalties for repeat offences."
Concurring that there was "no clear evidence of an intention to behave in a manner that can be said to be unsportsmanlike", the stewards cleared the driver of the charge, but nonetheless expressed concern at the "way in which Car 20 was driven".
Indeed, given that Magnussen repeatedly committed the same offence the stewards feel that moving forward more power should be granted in order to punish such deliberate actions.
"Moving forward, the stewards will need to consider if, in appropriate situations, especially in the case of repeat infringements, the penalties to be applied for each infringement need to be increased to discourage scenarios such as those that we found today," they said. "This is something that we will raise explicitly with the FIA and the stewarding team."
Among those expressing anger at Magnussen's actions was McLaren boss, Andrea Stella.
"For me it's actually relatively simple because we have a case of a behaviour being intentional in terms of damaging another competitor," he told reporters. "This behaviour is perpetuated within the same race and repeated over the same season.
"How can penalties be cumulative? They should be exponential," he continued. "It's not five plus five plus five equals 15, five plus five plus five equals maybe you need to spend a weekend at home with your family, reflect on your sportsmanship and then go back.
"And if we see that you become loyal, fair and sportsman-like, to your fellow competitors then you can stay in this business. It's completely unacceptable.
"I guess the penalty points is still in place," he added, as he suggested that the rules need changing. "It is in place so I don't know exactly the situation for some drivers. I have to confess. But it definitely may mean that the metrics might have to be adjusted.
"Damaging intentionally the race of competitors just makes no sense from a sportsmanship point of view and this should be addressed immediately because if you are out of the points and you get 20 seconds or whatever at the end of your race it doesn't make any difference. But for the competitors you have damaged you have put them out of their race. Again, in a deliberate, perpetuated and repeated way. This is completely unacceptable.
"I want to reiterate that these values of being fair... it's a sport, it's a competition we need to give everyone a fair chance to compete. These values need to be taken into account in creating the appropriate set of regulations.
"But I'm sure the FIA will look into that and will come up with a sensible proposal for the Sporting Advisory Committee to evaluate and hopefully this will become soon either rules or guidelines that the stewards can apply."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Miami here.