Was the penalty that handed Magnussen a race ban too harsh?

Kevin Magnussen can be forgiven for feeling aggrieved by the manner in which he received a one-race ban at the Italian Grand Prix, following his minor incident with Pierre Gasly at the Variante della Roggia.

In attempting to put a move on Gasly at the Turn 4-5 chicane, the Dane locked up and made wheel-to-wheel contact with the Alpine; Gasly took to the run-off to evade heavier contact in the fight over 14th place.

For this, Magnussen was not only hit with a 10-second penalty, but also the critical two points to his superlicence that took his tally up to 12 – immediately pinging him for a race ban at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

This is not a takedown of Formula 1’s current driver penalty system. The 12-superlicence-points-for-a-ban solution has its foibles, sure, but it’s a good way of punishing consistent dangerous driving. Points are, generally speaking, rarely given out for misdemeanours – only for clashes and repeated infractions. 

However, the way that the rules are applied depends on the stewards present – and that’s what could be construed as inconsistency. Precedent is often used, but equating Magnussen’s incident to other examples suggests that it is minor by comparison.

By comparison, Nico Hulkenberg picked up the same penalty – 10 seconds plus two penalty points – for his slide tackle on Yuki Tsunoda at Turn 1 earlier in the race. Magnussen himself got the two points for taking Logan Sargeant out in Miami. 

These are incidents that not only show a breach of the FIA’s criterion that the overtaking car should “be driven in a safe and controlled manner throughout the manoeuvre”, but also have the net result of taking another driver out of the race.

Magnussen had locked up in the Gasly incident, so that might satisfy the first point – but even without that, there was room on the inside of the corner that he was entitled to as he was sufficiently alongside in the braking zone.

Thus, Magnussen was baffled by the decision, noting the Hulkenberg incident with Daniel Ricciardo earlier in the race – where the RB driver pushed Hulkenberg onto the grass into the Ascari braking zone.

“I don’t understand it at all.  You know, flat out, just completely confused.  Me and Gasly raced hard into Turn 4. Before, we had slight contact, we both missed the corner, came back on track again, no damage to either car, no consequence…