McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has strongly condemned Kevin Magnussen's defensive tactics during the Miami Grand Prix Sprint race, calling them "completely unacceptable" and an intentional behaviour that must be “immediately addressed” by the FIA.
Magnussen's tactics in Saturday’s short-form event were not unlike his controversial actions in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier this year, when he repeatedly held back midfield rivals to aid his Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg in securing points.
This time around, while defending aggressively against Lewis Hamilton, he went off the track as many as four times to maintain his position, incurring a succession of time penalties but ultimately succeeding once again in helping Hulkenberg finish seventh and secure two points.
Despite the stewards’ sanctions, Magnussen was not penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct, a decision that incensed Stella.
The McLaren principal He argues that the Haas charger’s repeated use of such blatant tactics highlights the need for the FIA to take action and implement rule changes to prevent similar situations in the future.
"We have a case of behaviour being intentional in terms of damaging another competitor and this behaviour is perpetuated within the same race and repeated over the same season," Stella said.
"How can penalties be accumulative? They should be exponential. It is not five plus five plus five equals 15.
"Five plus five plus five equals maybe you need to spend a weekend at home with your family and reflect on your sportsmanship and then go back...
"It is completely unacceptable. It makes no sense from a sportsmanship point of view and this should be addressed immediately.
"If you are out of the points, getting 20 seconds or whatever doesn't make any difference. But for the competitors you have damaged, you have put them out of their race in a deliberate, perpetuated and repeated way."
Oddly, the FIA has remained silent on the topic of drivers resorting to defensive maneuvers such as those deployed by Magnussen to fend off a rival or help a teammate.
“I don't think they may have a reason why not,” Stella replied when asked why the governing body has not been reactive. “They were potentially just surprised by the fact that this was repeated.
"I am sure the FIA will look into that and will come to a sensible proposal for the Sporting Advisory Committee to evaluate. Hopefully these will soon become rules or guidelines that the stewards can apply."
Stella’s hopes of a crack down on drivers abusing defensive tactics were given a boost by the Miami Grand Prix stewards.
While the officials concluded in Magnussen’s case that there was "no clear evidence of an intention to behave in a manner that can be said to be unsportsmanlike", they nevertheless stated that they "disagreed" with the "way in which Car 20 was driven".
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella
The report indicated that, in light of Magnussen's repeated offenses, discussions would take place regarding potential regulation adjustments aimed at empowering stewards to impose harsher penalties on drivers.
"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”, they said.
"This is something that we will raise explicitly with the FIA and the stewarding team."
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