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By Lydia Mee
Sports Contributing Writer
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Formula 1 drivers are rallying for a reassessment of the penalty point system following Kevin Magnussen's controversial race ban deemed "harsh" by many within the sport.
The incident occurred during the Italian Grand Prix when Magnussen attempted to overtake Alpine driver Pierre Gasly, resulting in both cars cutting the chicane and taking to the run-off area. Consequently, the Danish driver was handed a 10-second penalty and two points on his superlicence, triggering a one-race ban for accruing 12 penalty points in 12 months.
Yuki Tsunoda, another driver who previously faced the possibility of a race ban, criticized the rigid penalty points system for a 24-race season, calling for more lenient rules. He commented, as quoted by Motorsport.com:
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"I was in that situation, I almost got banned two years ago," Tsunoda said. "If I understood correctly, the penalty points didn't seem to change from once they introduced the maximum points they can reach.
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"It feels like that penalty points should get a little bit more compliant, I guess - it seems still kind of strict for 24 races, but at the same time, they had to do it [ban Magnussen] I guess.
"If the track limits get penalty points, that's too much then. You get enough penalty in the race in race results.
"I don't think it's necessary to put it the penalty points, but collision like now, I guess it's good to have, but case by case, for sure.
"But also, it seems to look case by case anyway, because some of the cases that they put to the driver one point instead of two, it depends on the situation."
George Russell also weighed in on the issue, agreeing that the Monza penalty was harsh.
"It's a conversation that's been had a number of times in previous years, as drivers have sailed close to the wind," Russell explained.
"No one's been banned in 12 years, so you could argue, were the penalty points actually harsh enough? You could argue for sure his penalty points from Monza seemed a little bit harsh, but you could also argue some of the other incidents perhaps were not harsh enough.
"So yeah, I think also we need to set a bit of a precedent as well for the junior series. Those guys look up to us in F4, F3, F2 and you shouldn't be allowed to get away with dangerous or erratic driving and at some point, you do need to be punished for it."
Magnussen's teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, shared similar sentiments, criticizing the stewards for penalizing what he saw as normal racing behavior.
"Obviously, there's a history of how that happened and he accumulated all those penalty points but if you look just isolated at the Monza incident, I think, that's racing.
"I mean, it's pretty straightforward, fair and square racing. I don't see two penalty points for that, or that 10-second penalty even - that's very harsh.
"That's my opinion, but most drivers feel the same way about that. I had a case with Fernando [Alonso] in Austria, in the sprint race, where I kind of tried to make a move in turn three, and locked up and went a bit wide, and he had to go off the track.
"But, I mean, that's racing; to overtake we have to leave the comfort zone and take some risk and then that kind of happens sometimes.
"It seems a bit that the stewards, whenever there's a little contact, they want to get involved. They want to have a consequence for it, which I think the drivers feel is not really necessary for every contact. Maybe the penalty guidelines need to be reviewed and then changed because we need to be able to race."
Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu added that while the penalty adhered to the current guidelines, their appropriateness for racing incidents like Magnussen's needs reevaluation.
"I think according to the penalty guideline, the penalty that was given on that particular incident, I can't really argue. But it's more a question of if that penalty guideline is correct."
Magnussen is heading to the end of his contract with the American F1 team and is yet to confirm his racing future for 2025 onwards, whether that be in F1 or elsewhere.
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