Pierre Gasly felt Kevin Magnussen was handed an unfair penalty for their contact in F1 Italian GP, as Fernando Alonso had sympathy too.
Amid all the incidents in F1 Italian GP, the one between Haas’ Magnussen and Alpine’s Gasly proved too costly for the Dane who was handed two penalty points on his superlicense which eventually led to a race ban for him in Azerbaijan GP.
The FIA confirmed the same via their own press note, with Haas now waiting to announce a replacement. The likely name is to be Oliver Bearman, who will drive for the F1 team in 2025. Both Ayao Komatsu and Frederic Vasseur didn’t readily confirmed the same.
Gasly, meanwhile, came to Magnussen’s aide after the Dane was left confused and frustrated about the Turn 4 contact which he thought was not dangerous enough. The stewards reckoned he was not in control and did not complete the move cleanly.
In fact, Gasly stated that he would even speak to the stewards about taking the penalty back if possible, as he thought that the collision was very minor one. “Honestly, this was nothing,” he said to media. “The whole afternoon we were dead slow.
“We really need to get on top of it because I really believed we would have more potential in the race and it was a lot harder. Someone told me he got a 10 seconds penalty. I’m a bit surprised for that because he tried, but it was a bit of wheel to wheel and in the end I really didn’t lose any time.
“I’m a bit surprised. I hope somehow they can revert on that because that will would be definitely unfair. I’ll be happy to do it [speak with the stewards] – I’ll see what I can do. That will feel very unfair for the incident that it was,” summed up Gasly.
There was also sympathy from Aston Martin’s Alonso, who has been vocal about stewarding in general. “100% [I feel sympathy] because penalty points, as we discussed many times, should be for dangerous driving. Something that is a danger for the sport and for the others,” he said.
“And I think a couple of those points that he accumulated, I’m not sure, I don’t have the list here, but sometimes it’s just pitlane white line, unsafe releases, all these kind of things. This is part of racing, this is a drive-through, this is a five-second penalty. I understand the racing penalties, but the safety penalties is a little bit harder to understand.”
Here’s Kevin Magnussen on clash with Pierre Gasly
Here’s how F1 Italian GP panned out
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