Mirroring his ways from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Magnussen once more held up midfield rivals to assist Haas team-mate Nico Hulkenberg safe factors within the dash race.
This time Magnussen went off as many as 4 instances to keep away from shedding locations, which ended up costing him 35 seconds value of penalties, however crucially did not forestall him from conserving observe place till Hulkenberg was protected to gather two factors in seventh.
Afterwards, Magnussen was cleared of unsportsmanlike behaviour, which Stella vehemently disagreed with, saying the Dane’s repeat ways present the FIA must take motion and tweak its ruleset.
“We’ve got a case of behaviour being intentional when it comes to damaging one other competitor and this behaviour is perpetuated throughout the identical race and repeated over the identical season,” Stella mentioned.
“How can penalties be accumulative? They need to be exponential. It’s not 5 plus 5 plus 5 equals 15.
“5 plus 5 plus 5 equals possibly you should spend a weekend at residence with your loved ones and mirror in your sportsmanship after which return…
“It’s utterly unacceptable. It is mindless from a sportsmanship standpoint and this must be addressed instantly.
“If you’re out of the factors, getting 20 seconds or no matter would not make any distinction. However for the opponents you’ve broken, you’ve put them out of their race in a deliberate, perpetuated and repeated approach.”
Andrea Stella, Workforce Principal, McLaren F1 Workforce
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
When requested by Autosport if he was conscious of any reason it hadn’t been addressed but after Jeddah, Stella replied: “I do not assume they might have a motive why not. They had been probably simply stunned by the truth that this was repeated.
“I’m positive the FIA will look into that and can come to a wise proposal for the Sporting Advisory Committee to judge. Hopefully these will quickly turn into guidelines or pointers that the stewards can apply.”
One apparent resolution is for race management to revert to creating drivers surrender a place relatively than letting the groups make the choice themselves and threaten with drive-through penalties relatively than typically meaningless time penalties.
“That is as drivers what we have requested for, however they do not wish to do it,” McLaren’s Lando Norris mentioned. “They are saying it is as much as us.”
Workforce-mate Oscar Piastri identified that mandating drivers to cede positions additionally carries its issues, however felt that in “blatant” {cases} like Magnussen it must be an easy factor to implement.
“There are specific eventualities the place giving the place again could be very tough,” Piastri defined.
“Say you overtake someone and the FIA asks you to offer it again, however then you definitely’re dropped behind extra individuals… is it nonetheless honest or not?
“However in [Magnussen’s] scenario, clearly all these issues can be mounted if the FIA mentioned: ‘You want to give the place again and if you happen to do not, it is a drive-through’.
Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“If you understand you are going to face a drive-through, you are going to give the place again.”
He added: “When you go off by 10 centimetres and it is not clear on the TV otherwise you pulled off the world’s finest overtake, then are the followers going to say: ‘Oh, that is approach too harsh’.
“It’s totally tough to police it like that, but when it is blatant, then the FIA ought to have the facility to step in.
“The truth that it is not the primary time and the motive force is overtly admitting he deserves the penalties and did it for the group, to me that is unsuitable.”