F1 drivers reflect on the penalties and penalty points handed by FIA steward, especially in the light of Kevin Magnussen nearing race ban.
In the last two decades, the only driver to face a race ban has been Romain Grosjean for his incident at Spa-Francorchamps. The penalty points of 12 has remained where F1 drivers have got close to it, but fortunately evaded any race ban.
At the moment, Haas’ Magnussen is on 10 points and the next time his penalty points will be erased will only happen in March of 2025. It is almost certain that he will face a race ban this year as it will be a difficult task to not collect two penalty points in 2024.
The Dane was certainly not in a chirpy mood in Imola where any penalty will mean that he will miss Monaco. But he did talk about the penalty points not being consistent which was backed by few of his F1 rivals, considering some offences get two and some three.
The track limits penalty points is one key topic which F1 drivers feel otherwise about. Some pointed out to increase the penalty points since the races have risen from before, while some reckoned the points are fine as they are at the moment.
In fact, the FIA are to discuss about shelling out potential drive-through penalties for offences to deal with situation that Magnussen was in in Miami. Staying with the last grand prix, Carlos Sainz had some strong view about lack of penalty to Sergio Perez as well.
Penalties, penalty points –
Kevin Magnussen: “I think the next time it’s a race ban, so I think I’ll have to, but I don’t know. I think these situations where I’ve had to play the support role for my teammate, they have been paying off, so it’s been kind of valuable to us. I don’t love the way the rules are; that it’s possible. I would love it to not be possible at all. But since the rules are as they are and I didn’t make the rules, I think there’s stuff to be looked at there. For myself, I’m on 10 points, so I have to be careful not to get a race ban. I think the fact that I’m at risk of a race ban for driving outside of some white lines on a piece of tarmac, I don’t know if I feel that that is right, but it is the way the rules are, so I accept that. I feel there’s room for improvement there, not only in terms of the points. There are more races now than there were back when they were introduced, and I feel you can end up getting a race ban effectively for a very minor thing. So that’s what I feel.”
Daniel Ricciardo: “I feel like this is an interrogation. I don’t know. I mean, I see the point. Look, do I sit here and say, I want to see a driver get a race ban? No, I don’t. So I’m sure there’s always some room for improving it and understanding it better. And it’s maybe like more… It’s hard because we all have, I guess, different opinions when we’ve got the helmet on and we’re racing. But sometimes I feel like a live decision can probably come sooner. But yeah, that’s obviously, that could mean many things. But sometimes after the fact, you know, like the race is done and it’s gone and then… Yeah, so I don’t know. There’s always room for improvement. But yeah, I don’t know. You seem disappointed. What do you want me to say? What do you think?”
Nico Hulkenberg: “If I sympathise with a race ban? I am not exactly aware of the details how they were all accumulated, every incident. But sometimes I think he got a few penalties – I feel like in the last year and a half – you get penalty points for not really maybe drive unnecessary, so look for me in Miami, he was racing for P8 in the sprint and that’s a point and for us that’s true value and money. I was not surprised seeing him fighting the way he was and it was not just for me, probably a combination of both, but everyone knows Kevin Magnussen is one of the hardest guys to get by and don’t understand all the buzz around it to be honest. Help me? That was in Jeddah? In Miami? Yeah, but I disagree a little bit [for Miami], because at that point I was already well ahead, I would have secured my position anyways, I think it was more he was still fighting for himself personally for that one point also.
“I think you have to separate that a little bit too. Again I should know more about the penalty points, I try to stay away from it but it is busy enough as it is but I think it is quite long until they kind of get erased. I think we could revisit some of it and probably restructure. If you look at the past, some years it was more lenient, they would just let us race and some years it felt a bit tighter but now recently, I also see that under investigation quite often but there is not always there is action, again obviously you try to stay away from incidents, you try and stay clear as a driver and clean, that you are not losing energy and focus with these kind of subjects.”
Fernando Alonso: “We will always talk, and I think it’s still very much open, the point, and we are in the process of discussing more things between drivers, the FIA, stewards, the future regulations, future driving standards, and yeah I think the penalties were a little bit, again, inconsistent from our view, that will always be the case. I think when there is an accident or there is an investigation, one part will think in one way, and the other part will think in the opposite. This is the nature of the sport but we had a few cases, especially in the last two or three years, where both parties, think something, and the referee thinks another way, which is a strange thing in sport. So this is something that we need to work on. And, and I was happy also the other day to read in an article Checo and Logan saying that the penalties were a little bit strange, so I was not the only one.”
Yuki Tsunoda: “Some of it yes, some of maybe not. But because of it probably, maybe you are a bit nice to kind of slightly extend more points because these points they haven’t changed it for probably since 10 years ago, which was when it was 18 races. Now with 24 races, it increase more races but they haven’t changed the points. Since we have more races, so my view is that we should slightly extend more points to have your flexibility. At the same time, if you see a drive keep doing the same thing, race by race, it is not nice to see and then the driver should be more penalised, should be told properly otherwise there is mixed kind of things. In my view, it is good to have a bit more discussions about that.
“Yeah, definitely, maybe it is a good thing but at the same time, we need consistency, I have seen more investigation or whatever, I think it feels like the quality will get lower and lower, so as long as quality is there, it is okay but those things we sure need to discuss about that, I don’t think all drivers need their perspective with the FIA, I don’t think we are fully on same page, like Imola for example, they removed things off-track with gravel and it will be same Monza, one car they go off in front of you and literally they will bring gravel on track which will increase the chance for puncture or whatever. I think we have to be more connected together and have conversations.”
Lance Stroll: “I think the penalty points are too strict, sometimes you are getting two penalty points for a small offence and three for something way worse, it looks like the direction we are going in, half the grid won’t be starting races on Sunday at some point with the amount of penalty points being handed out. I think the penalties are not consistent either, it is my feeling, sometimes it is pretty shocking, some guys get penalty for this, some guys get penalty for that, so definitely we need things to keep reviewing but it has been like that for years and definitely want to think about it though and try and be more consistent and make better decisions and maybe handout more sensible penalties.
I think the penalty points are too casually given out, like I said eventually everyone will have the point and no one is going to start a race. I think that is an issue and then some penalties don’t make sense, we have spoken about a portion of the car is next to another car, you have to leave space and if a driver doesn’t leave space then that’s their fault. I was overtaken on the outside in Miami by Albon and he didn’t leave me any space and I just went over, four wheels over the paint and I got a penalty for that, so if he would have left me more space, I wouldn’t have to go there and we talk about all these kind of things, then I got an explanation afterwards, ‘he was in front of me’, I can sit here all day talk about it but it is just those little things like consistency and I guess accurate penalties and penalty points. Magnussen got four or five penalty points for what he did and Logan got two for something, which was way dangerous you could say.
George Russell: I am not really sure if it needs looking at or not, to be honest if you look over the last 20 years, I don’t know how many drivers have been given a race ban – I can only think of one in these 20 years. If you look at football games, people get red cards quite regularly. So you can look at it that there is an opportunity for a young driver to show what they are capable of, a driver who is deserving of race ban. Maybe a race ban is a bit harsh but things shouldn’t go unpunished.
FIA bringing changes to penalties in future, changes at Imola –
Magnussen: “I think the best thing would be for the FIA to tell us to give back positions and then the consequence for not doing that being harsh, like really harsh, so you make sure that that’s being done. Because, you know, I think it gets too, firstly, complicated and also too big a consequence. You have to be able to leave a little bit of room to go over the limit and then come back from that. Whereas now, if they judge it to be an unfair advantage and it’s a drive-through penalty, I think that’s not good. I’ve raced in IndyCar, and I love the way they race over there. I feel the rules are very clear and very simple, and the racing is great. The racing has to be great amongst the 20 best drivers in the world. I think that is also part of it. One thing is that the Formula 1 drivers are fast, but also very good at racing. You have to showcase that. That has to be part of it. We all came from karting and learned to race each other.
“And I feel now, certainly for myself, with the guidelines this year, some of that is going against the natural racing dynamic that we’ve all learned as young kids. But I know that’s a separate issue to the going off and holding people back and all the stuff that I got penalties for, I think that can be solved with telling us to give back positions. And the penalty for not doing that would be very, very harsh. Tracks. You mentioned tracks. I think that’s a big part too. I raced, as I said, in IndyCar and also in sports cars in America. I did the whole championship in America.
“One thing that stood out was the tracks and how unbelievably different they are to F1 tracks. The cars over there, they are low as well. We bounce around in the sports cars over there. I don’t see it that different from here. I’m sitting next to a lot of drivers here, but I feel like we are very sensitive to track stuff in Formula 1. I like the rough tracks. I prefer those, but also to the racing issue, tracks that have grass or gravel on the outside, you just put this natural limit in and it sorts itself out. So I feel like that is also an issue in Formula 1, just the tracks in general.”
Pierre Gasly: “Yeah, I think it’s great. Just exactly as Kevin said, it just sets the limit. And I think it works fine. You know, if you go over the limits, you get penalised and you can’t get away with it. So I think get rid of all the track limits topic, which is great. If you make a mistake, you pay the price for it. And I do believe that’s how it should be because with all this run-off and tarmacs, then you tend to sometimes get away with limits, with lock-ups, trying more stuff, go off the track, come back without really much disadvantage and kind of lost a bit the way it was in the past. And I think most drivers have been pushing to go in that direction. It’s just great to see F1 has reacted to it positively and decided to make these changes here.”
Penalty in Miami –
Carlos Sainz: “Drivers sometimes don’t either. In this case, I think there’s a case of… I struggle to understand it sometimes too. I’m going to put a very clear example that I even shared with Checo at the time, at the start. Checo, you know, went completely long, lost control of the car, nearly took two guys out. We just were lucky to, in a way, to avoid him, and he went off the track at the start, and there wasn’t a consequence, there was no contacts or anything, but it cost a lot of my race, it cost a lot of other people’s race, and he didn’t get a penalty, you know, in that sense. I lost minimal control of the car overtaking Oscar. I unfortunately damaged his from wing. He obviously went backwards, 15 positions, and I got a five-second penalty. And in that sense, I know that we keep thinking we don’t look at the outcome of the penalty.
“In this case, I think clearly we’re still looking at the outcome, because I am completely certain that if the front wing of Oscar wouldn’t have had to pit, I wouldn’t have had a penalty and everyone would be talking about a good overtake and some good action on track, on a track where it proved to be extremely difficult to overtake and you had to go for a move like that. But yeah, on the other hand, Checo didn’t touch anyone, even we all managed to avoid him and there was no penalty. So in my opinion, the consequence, it’s still having a bit of an effect in the penalty that you get, which, is something that I don’t fully share or I’m still a bit puzzled about and I struggle with sometimes.”
Oscar Piastri: “I am not sure I can say good because it didn’t end well for me. It was…yes we both were racing very hard, I think for me the thing with that penalty was, he locked up towards the end of the braking zone and without that, we would have both been fine. I think it could have easily been a racing incident or a penalty, at the end of the day, it is not something that I can change now, but definitely some hard racing.”
Here’s Lance Stroll on penalty points being a joke
Here’s Fernando Alonso on meeting with Mohammed Ben Sulayem
Here’s Fernando Alonso views after sprint race
Here’s Kevin Magnussen on Miami GP hit
Here’s what Kevin Magnussen said after sprint + more
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