Kevin Magnussen Punishment Quite ‘Harsh’, Says F1 Expert

Kevin Magnussen Punishment Quite 'Harsh', Says F1 Expert

Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen has received a one-race ban from the FIA after his incident with Pierre Gasly in Monza, which earned him two penalty points, bringing his total to 12. He became the first driver in F1 history to be forced to sit out because of this, but Marc Priestley believes that a time penalty should have been enough.

On his YouTube channel, the ex-McLaren mechanic said, “I’ve got to be honest, that was harsh… the penalty points – I just don’t understand. For me, that was hard racing.”

Magnussen had a coming together with Alpine’s Gasly at Turn 4 during last weekend’s race. The Dane locked up going into the Curva della Roggia, making contact with Gasly’s A524. He received a ten-second time penalty, which Priestley insisted would have been sufficient.

However, the two penalty points added to his super license post-race brought his tally up to 12 within the ongoing 12-month period, triggering an automatic one-race ban.

Priestley wasn’t the only one who deemed the punishment too severe. Gasly, the driver involved in the collision with Magnussen, also felt that a race ban was unnecessary.

Gasly wants Magnussen’s ban overturned

Magnussen argued that neither driver lost any time or sustained any damage as a result of his shunt with Gasly. The Frenchman agreed and urged the stewards to reconsider their decision.

“When someone told me he had a 10-second penalty I was surprised,” Gasly said as per Formule1.nl. “He tried to overtake me and we were wheel to wheel, but in the end, I didn’t lose any time. I hope the stewards can overturn the suspension because it would be really unfair.”

Haas, however, did not appeal for the FIA to overturn Magnussen’s ban. Instead, they issued a statement blaming their strategy, which they acknowledged had put Magnussen in a difficult situation. It read- “…we shouldn’t have put Kevin in that position behind Gasly, so again our execution wasn’t perfect and that’s something we need to improve.” 

Magnussen is now set to miss the next race, the Azerbaijan GP. Oliver Bearman, who joins Haas full-time in 2025, is reported to make his second one-off appearance of the season in Baku.

Post Edited By: Somin Bhattacharjee
Alpine Azerbaijan GP Haas Italian GP Kevin Magnussen Oliver Bearman Pierre Gasly

About the author

Anirban Aly Mandal

Anirban Aly Mandal is an F1 writer at The SportsRush, with over 1000 articles under his belt, Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 on his computer. With over half a decade's worth of time spent religiously following the sport, he’s dived deep into the world of motorsports. However, Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports and the law. His passion for the sport is so immense that he aspires to work as a legal advisor in the most prestigious racing series in the world someday. When it comes to Formula 1, Anirban finds great pleasure in re-watching classic races and idolizes the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Sebastian Vettel. His top picks include Brazil '91, Silverstone '92, and Germany '19. Outside of the sport, Anirban is an avid sim racer, often found racing on titles like Assetto Corsa, F1 22, and Automobilista. Apart from his interests in gaming, Anirban has a keen interest in philosophy, literature and music.

Don’t miss these