Pierre Gasly Brands Kevin Magnussen's Race Ban 'Unfair' After Italian GP Collision

Chris Ladd | Sep 1, 2024

May 5, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Hass drive Kevin Magnussen (20) during the Miami Grand Prix at Miami International Autodrome. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports / Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports

Pierre Gasly's call to reverse Kevin Magnussen's one-race ban stems from an incident at the Italian Grand Prix, where the two drivers made contact at the Variante della Roggia side by side. Neither driver was able to make the corner, and while Magnussen later passed Gasly and initially finished ninth, he was demoted to 10th after a 10-second penalty was applied for his role in the incident.

The critical issue is that the two penalty points added to Magnussen's superlicence for this incident brought his total to 12, automatically triggering a race ban. Gasly believes this punishment is overly harsh and has urged the stewards to reconsider, suggesting that the ban does not reflect the nature of the incident and could set a worrying precedent for future penalties.

Gasly downplayed the incident with Kevin Magnussen, describing the contact as minor, saying it was nothing more than "a bit of wheel to wheel." Gasly was even willing to visit the stewards to advocate for the reversal of Magnussen's race ban, as he believes the punishment is disproportionate to the incident.

"Honestly, this was nothing. The whole afternoon we were dead slow. We really need to get on top of it because I really believed we would have more potential in the race and it was a lot harder," Gasly said to the media, as reported by Autosport.

"Someone told me he got a 10-second penalty. I'm a bit surprised by that because he tried, but it was a bit of wheel to wheel and in the end, I really didn't lose any time. I'm a bit surprised.

"I hope somehow they can revert on that because that will would be definitely unfair. I'll be happy to do it [vouch for Magnussen with the stewards] - I'll see what I can do. That will feel very unfair for the incident that it was."

Fernando Alonso added his voice to the discussion, sympathizing with Kevin Magnussen's situation. Alonso questioned whether all of the penalty points Magnussen had accrued were truly in line with the original intent of penalizing dangerous driving. He agreed that while time penalties were necessary, the accumulation of penalty points for what he saw as minor infractions was harder to justify.

"100% [I feel sympathy] because penalty points, as we discussed many times, should be for dangerous driving. Something that is a danger for the sport and for the others," Alonso said.

"And I think a couple of those points that he accumulated, I'm not sure, I don't have the list here, but sometimes it's just pitlane white line, unsafe releases, all these kind of things.

"This is part of racing, this is a drive-through, this is a five-second penalty. I understand the racing penalties, but the safety penalties is a little bit harder to understand."