Amid the ongoing Imola GP 2024 Haas driver Kevin Magnussen is facing a lot of criticism for his on-track antics. In the ongoing season, he has worked as a rear gunner for his teammate Nicko Hulkenberg in Saudi Arabia and Miami. His antics have pilled up 10 penalty points on his name and pushed him on the verge of facing a ban.
However, the Dane underwent an investigation, ultimately receiving clearance for any potential unsportsmanlike behaviour. However, stewards explained Magnussen's actions and proposed a potential alteration to the regulations, advocating for penalties to be heightened in cases involving repeat offenders.
The stewards wrote in his report, “Moving forward, the stewards will need to consider if, in appropriate situations, especially in the case of repeat infringements, the penalties to be applied for each infringement need to be increased to discourage scenarios such as those that we found today. This is something that we will raise explicitly with the FIA and the stewarding team.”
What do team managers think?
Now, as per various media reports Imola FIA held a team manager meeting on Thursday to discuss about the suggestions. According to reports it was decided to examine the matter thoroughly without rushing into implementation to avoid unforeseen repercussions.
Instead, it will be discussed at the next meeting of F1's Sporting Advisory Committee, where rule changes are debated and evaluated. In the interim, FIA stewards have been urged to consider utilizing drive-through penalties, instead of the usual 10-second time penalty, in cases where drivers unfairly gain positions.
During discussions at Imola over the weekend, Kevin Magnussen proposed a more effective approach, suggesting that race control instruct drivers to relinquish their positions. "The optimal solution would be for the FIA to mandate position returns, with severe consequences for non-compliance," he elaborated.
“Like, really harsh – so you make sure that that's being done. Because I think it firstly gets too complicated and also too big a consequence for that infraction. 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”, he further added.