Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso have voiced their support for Haas’ Kevin Magnussen after the Dane incurred a one-race band following the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.
Since the Miami GP in May, Magnussen has had 10 points on his FIA Super License, two away from the maximum 12 needed to incur a race ban.
For several months he’s escaped further punishment, but after incurring a 10-second time penalty for a wheel-to-wheel collision with Gasly on Sunday, Magnussen received the two penalty points needed to miss out on the Azerbaijan GP in just under a fortnight.
Gasly however, deemed the penalty too harsh, saying that the incident which occurred at the Variante Della Roggia didn’t impact him in any way.
“Someone told me he got a 10-second penalty. I’m a bit surprised by that,” Gasly told media including Motorsport Week post-race.
“Yeah, he tried, but it was a bit of wheel-to-wheel. In the end, I didn’t lose any time. I’m a bit surprised.”
Upon learning that the penalty took Magnussen to a race ban, Gasly said “I hope somehow [the Stewards] can revert on that, because that would be definitely unfair.”
Gasly knows what it’s like to have a race ban potentially looming over one’s head.
During the closing stages of his AlphaTauri driving career in 2022, the Frenchman was on 10 points, but his tally refreshed before he could reach a ban.
“I was in a similar situation [to Magnussen], for different reasons, and it’s not a nice position to be in,” Gasly said, adding “you can’t approach racing properly or the way you want.”
Such was Gasly’s sympathy for the situation, that he even said he’d “be happy” to plead with the Stewards on Magnussen’s behalf.
“I’ll see what I can do. That would feel very unfair for the incident that it was.”
Alonso meanwhile, who criticised the Stewards for being biased against Spanish drivers during the Miami GP, “100%” believes the penalty points system needs reviewing, and that points should only be attributed to offences that pose a safety risk.
“Penalty points, as we’ve discussed many times, should be for dangerous driving, something that is a danger for the sport and for the others,” the Spaniard explained.
“And I think a couple of those points that [Magnussen] accumulated, I’m not sure, I don’t have the list here, but sometimes it’s just pit lane, white line, unsafe releases, all these kind of things.
“I mean, 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 are a little bit harder to understand.”
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