McLaren Calls For Harsher Punishment For Kevin Magnussen: 'Completely Unacceptable'
F1Sunday, 05 May 2024 at 14:00
McLaren's team principal, Andrea Stella, called for a more severe punishment for Kevin Magnussen after the 2024 Miami Grand Prix sprint race.
Kevin Magnussen and the Haas F1 team have been scrutinized after the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where the Danish driver intentionally broke some rules to get ahead and then backed up his team's competitors so that his teammate could score points.
During this week's sprint race at Miami International Autodrome, Magnussen did the exact same thing and yet again helped his teammate bring home valuable points for Haas.
The 31-year-old driver had Lewis Hamilton on a faster Mercedes behind him, and during their intense battle, he went outside the track limits and gained a significant advantage on four different occasions.
In total, Magnussen received 35 seconds of penalty time, which put him all the way to the back when crossing the finish line, but he did help his teammate, who comfortably brought home P7 for Haas. Andrea Stella said after the race:
"For me it's actually relatively simple, this case. Because we have a case of a behaviour being intentional in terms of damaging another competitor. This behaviour is perpetuated within the same race and repeated over the same season."
"How can penalties be cumulative? They should be exponential. Maybe you need to spend a weekend at home with your family reflecting on your sportsmanship and then go back."
After the race, the Danish driver talked to the media and said all the penalties were fair. At the same time, he admitted he slowed everyone behind him intentionally to help his teammate. McLaren's team principal suggested this behavior is "completely unacceptable."
"Intentionally damaging a race of your competitors just makes no sense from a sportsmanship point of view. 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. It's completely unacceptable."
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