Kevin Magnussen criticised the stewards’ decision to penalise him for his collision with Pierre Gasly during the Italian Grand Prix, which led to him being banned for a race.
The Haas driver has accumulated 12 penalty points on his superlicence and has been banned from the next round of the championship, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Speaking before his ban was confirmed, Magnussen said he didn’t feel his incident with Gasly at the Roggia chicane deserved a penalty.
“Me and Gasly had slight contact,” Magnussen told Sky. “No damage on either car, no consequence in the race, we just had slight contact and missed the corner.
“And, so what? We were racing. I don’t know why we need to be throwing around penalties like this.”
He said the collision between his team mate and Daniel Ricciardo deserved a stiffer penalty. Magnussen was given a 10 second penalty, Magnussen five.
“Nico almost get thrown into the wall at 300kph by Ricciardo,” said Magnussen. “I’m not saying he did it on purpose, but still he got five seconds, I got 10 seconds. It doesn’t add up at all.”
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Magnussen collected nine of his penalty points for collisions with other drivers. He said he doesn’t understand why the stewards give the penalties they do for such incidents.
“Even though I go speak to them – I have spoken to them many times, too many times – I still don’t understand what the rules are. It seems like they’re just throwing around, they don’t want racing, that’s what it seems to me.
“If this thing between me and Gasly can’t be deemed a racing incident, then I don’t know what can. It doesn’t make sense.”
Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu acknowledged Magnussen “won’t be racing in Baku” but the team has not yet confirmed who will replace him. The team’s reserve driver Oliver Bearman is due to race in Formula 2 that weekend, but was released from his commitment to the series earlier this year to replace Carlos Sainz Jnr at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
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2024 Italian Grand Prix
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