Haas driver Kevin Magnussen now has to navigate the final 18 races of the 2024 season without picking up two further penalty points on his superlicence; Stewards imposed five points on the Dane across Miami's Sprint weekend; F1 2024 continues at Imola on May 17-19
Monday 6 May 2024 15:29, UK
Kevin Magnussen is potentially one more incident away from a Formula 1 race ban after a series of controversial moves on track by the Haas driver during the Miami GP weekend.
Race stewards in Miami imposed five penalty points on Magnussen's superlicence during the course of the event in Florida - doubling his existing total to 10.
Drivers face an automatic one-race suspension if they accrue 12 penalty points across a rolling 12-month period.
Problematically for Magnussen, all 10 of his existing points have been earned in the first six races of this season, which began in March.
He gained the first three of his points for a collision with Williams' Alex Albon at the Saudi Arabian GP on March 9.
Those three points will not expire until March 9 next year - the week before the start of the 2025 season.
To avoid a ban, Magnussen therefore needs to make sure he does not pick up two penalty points in the 18 races that remain of the 2024 campaign.
Drivers found predominantly or wholly at fault for incidents such as collisions between drivers on track usually receive two or three penalty points.
No driver has reached the 12-point limit to trigger an automatic ban since the system was introduced in 2014.
Magnussen found himself in hot water with stewards in both the 19-lap Sprint and the main Grand Prix at the wall-lined Miami International Autodrome.
On Saturday, he was handed three penalty points for repeatedly leaving the track and gaining an advantage while trying to defend from Lewis Hamilton in order to prevent the Mercedes from chasing down team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, running seventh, ahead.
In a frank admission after the Sprint to Sky Sports F1, Magnussen said: "All the penalties were well deserved - no doubt about it. But I had to play the [team] game again.
"I started using these stupid tactics which I don't like doing, but at the end of the day I did my job as a team player and Nico scored his points because I got that gap for him so Lewis and Tsunoda couldn't catch him.
"Not the way I like to go racing at all, but it was what I had to do."
Magnussen later faced the stewards on a charge of alleged unsportsmanlike behaviour, although Hamilton was relaxed about the incidents, saying: "That's what you do to work as a team, so bravo."
On Sunday, Magnussen was then found to be "wholly to blame" for the collision with Logan Sargeant at Turn Three which sent the Williams in to the barriers and caused the lap-29 Safety Car.
Stewards imposed a 10-second time penalty on Magnussen in addition to two further superlicence points.
He was eventually classified 19th and last in the grand prix with 20s added to his final race time for another rules transgression, this time committed by the team, when they did not change tyres when they pitted him under the Safety Car amid front-wing damage to his car from the Sargeant clash.
"It wasn't a good day, again," admitted Magnussen, who is hoping to retain his seat at Haas for next season.
"Hopefully I can get some clarity on things going forward. What happened today, of course it's not good, but nonetheless, we try to move on and have a better weekend next weekend."
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