Williams’ Alex Albon accused Haas’ Kevin Magnussen of “crossing the line” with “dangerous” defensive driving tactics during the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
Magnussen, who is two penalty points away from a race ban, was again deployed by Haas to hold back rivals in a bid to aid team-mate Nico Hulkenberg after the Dane started from pit lane.
That led to him backing up Albon, who was then joined in the pursuit by Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
As all four pursuing drivers eventually swamped Magnussen into Turn 1, Albon was quick to call out on team radio that the Haas driver’s tactics were “dangerous”.
The Anglo-Thai driver believes “it stems from a little bit like Jeddah,” where Magnussen received several penalties for aggressive defensive driving.
“Kevin’s an unbelievable team player and I give him full credit for it,” Albon continued.
“I don’t think it gets policed that well and there’s a bit of a grey area between what is correct in backing up a group of cars.
“In this case for me it was fairly marginal. There were some really quick corners, turn 7, turn 8, the final corner and he was braking in the middle of them.
“So you turn in flat and then you have to slam the brakes and avoid it.
“That’s, I think, crossing the line a little bit. But it’s grey and I think part of the issue is it’s not really being policed that often.
“I had the same situation in Monaco with Yuki during the race and I was complaining but they felt it was okay. The problem is at one point it’s going to be a crash.”
Gasly also took issue with Magnussen’s driving, stating: “I’ve never seen someone lifting in Turn 14, or putting first gear in Turn 12.
“I think Alex got very close to him. He locked up mid-corner Turn 12, when [Magnussen] was downshifting in first, when you should be almost full throttle.”
Despite being agitated by Magnussen’s driving, Albon understands why the Haas driver was called into employing such tactics.
With points coming at a premium for the midfield teams, the Williams driver admitted several outfits employ dubious defensive tactics to chase those vital ninth and 10th-place results.
“It all just stems from the lower field teams,” he said.
“That P10, P9 is so valuable to us. It’s very normal, every team does it now.
“One driver has to pay the sacrificial lamb in the race. That’s just what it is, that’s what a lot of the racing has come to now. It’s part of it.
“Obviously if the point system was a bit different and everyone had a bit more range, I don’t think this kind of stuff would happen. But that’s the game.”
Formula 1 did consider extending the current points-system to allow up to 15 drivers to score on race day.
However, an F1 Commission meeting in July rejected the notion of changing the points-system for the foreseeable future.
Discussion about this post