McLaren’s Oscar Piastri believes that Kevin Magnussen bluntly admitting to resorting to unsportsmanlike tactics in last weekend’s Miami Grand Prix sprint event sets “a risky precedent”.
Magnussen was running in the top ten in Saturday’s short-from event just behind Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg.
However, unable to overhaul the German driver, Magnussen turned his attention to fending off the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton for as long as possible.
The Dane’s strategy involved a series of aggressive maneuvers that resulted in a hefty 35 seconds worth of penalties for Magnussen. Despite the sanctions, the tactic paid off, at least for Hulkenberg who finished seventh and delivered valuable points to his team.
After the race, in which Magnussen was classified a lowly P18 due to his penalties, the 31-year-old openly admitted that his driving deserved to be sanctioned by the stewards, also acknowledging personal dislike for such tactics, framing his actions as him simply "playing the team game."
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Piastri was clearly unimpressed with his colleague’s attitude.
"I saw his comments after the [sprint] race, saying that he deserved to have all the penalties he got," the Australian told the media.
"I think the fact that the driver getting the penalties is saying he deserves all the penalties, and that's kind of the route they chose to go down - it obviously doesn't set a very good precedent for everyone.
"Getting penalties and saying, 'Well, it was a bit 50/50, or I got hard done by' is one thing, but getting that many penalties and saying 'Yeah, I deserve them all', it sets a very risky precedent that should probably be policed a bit harsher."
Advocating for a stricter approach to the type of behaviour displayed by Magnussen, Piatsri suggested that a drive-through penalty would be more appropriate for clear-cut transgressions that disrupt the race flow.
"We discussed that with the stewards and FIA quite a bit about what happens if you go off the track and gain an advantage," he said.
"I think there's certain scenarios where giving the position back is very difficult. Say you overtake somebody, and then if it's a 50/50, and the FIA asked you to give it back, but they've then dropped behind more people, is it still fair or not?
"But I think in that situation, clearly, all those problems would be fixed if the FIA had said, 'You need to give the position back, and if you don't it's a drive-through [penalty]'. Just get him out of the way somehow.
"If you run the risk of, 'Do I need to give the position back or not?', if you know you're going to face a drive-through, you're going to give the position back."
©Haas
Magnussen’s defensive tactics were similar to the antics used by the Haas driver in Saudi Arabia earlier this season, when he repeatedly held back midfield rivals to aid his Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg in securing points.
Piastri believes that the recurrent aspect of Magnussen’s tactics justifies on its own a harsher sanction from the stewards.
"So, I think we should be harsher on that," he said.
“I think the fact that it's not the first time that it's happened, irrespective that it's the same team, but I think the fact that it's not the first time, and the driver getting penalties is openly admitting he deserves the penalties and [that he] did it for the team.
“To me, that's wrong."
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