F1 drivers call for rule rethink in the wake of Magnussen’s Baku ban

Formula 1’s penalty point system “need to be reviewed” in the wake of the incident that triggered Kevin Magnussen’s one-race ban for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix – which other drivers described as “harsh”.

Magnussen made contact with Pierre Gasly at the Variante della Roggia during the Italian Grand Prix in a bid to make an overtake, ultimately forcing both to take to the run-off cutting the chicane.

Although Magnussen continued his progress and finished ninth on the road, he was handed a 10-second penalty and the application of two points to his superlicence – relegating him to 10th in the order and triggering his ban for Baku after reaching 12 penalty points.

This came despite Gasly’s earlier assertion that it was “nothing” and the penalty was “unfair” – something that Magnussen’s team-mate Nico Hulkenberg agreed with.

“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 concurred, adding: “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.”

Yuki Tsunoda reckoned that the 12-point system was too restrictive for a 24-race season, recalling that he was close to a ban in 2022 thanks to a series of infractions in his sophomore campaign.

He felt that for infractions like track limits, the on-track penalty…