Kevin Magnussen has called on the FIA to consider revising the current penalty points structure in Formula 1 amid the Haas driver being close to receiving a race ban.
The penalty point scheme was conceived in 2014 as a method to ensure that repeat offenders get punished and face the looming threat of sitting out a race weekend.
But while no driver has hit the requisite 12 points over a rolling 12-month period to be handed a one-round ban, Magnussen appears destined to change that this term.
The Dane was punished for multiple incidents during the Miami Grand Prix weekend, resulting in him needing to escape the next 18 rounds without logging two points.
Magnussen picked up three of those points from the several penalties he accrued in the Sprint for cutting the corner on two occasions to keep Lewis Hamilton behind.
Although he accepted the sanctions handed down post-race, Magnussen has claimed that it is wrong he is on the brink of a ban due to incidents involving track limits.
“The fact I’m at risk of a race ban for driving outside of some white lines on a piece of tarmac, I don’t know if I feel that is right,” he said. “But it is the way the rules are.
“So you know, I accept that. But I feel there’s room for improvement there, not only in terms of the points.
“There are more races now than there was when they were introduced. I feel you can end up getting a race ban effectively for a very minor thing. So that’s what I feel.”
Magnussen believes that informing the teams to tell their driver to hand back the position in incidences like his in Miami would provide a viable solution to the issue.
“The best thing would be to for the FIA to tell us to give back positions, and then the consequence for not doing that being harsh, so you make sure that’s being done,” he said.
“I think it gets too firstly complicated and also too big a consequence for, you have to be able to leave a bit of room to go over the limit and then come back from that, whereas now if they judge it to be an unfair advantage and it’s a drive-through penalty, I think that’s not good.”
Magnussen has also pinpointed how an increase in asphalt run-off areas has been a contributing factor, citing that grass or gravel alone would alleviate the problem.
“You mention tracks, that’s a big part too,” he continued.
“I raced in IndyCar and also in sports cars in America, I did the whole championship in America, and one thing that stood out was the tracks and how unbelievably different they are to F1 tracks. The cars over there, they’re low as well, we bounce around in the sports cars over there. I don’t see that a lot different.
“I’m sitting next to a lot of drivers here, but I feel that we’re very sensitive to track stuff in Formula 1. I like the rough tracks, I prefer those, but also to the racing issue, tracks that have grass or gravel on the outside, you put this natural limit in and that sorts itself out. I feel that’s also an issue in Formula 1, just the tracks in general.”
Magnussen admitted that he adopted similar contentious tactics to the one he implemented in Jeddah to bolster Haas team-mate Nico Hulkenberg’s points chances.
However, the ex-McLaren driver has conceded that he will have to temper his approach in the coming rounds to ensure that he postpones
Asked whether he’ll adapt his driving to avoid being disciplined, Magnussen replied: “I think the next time it’s a race ban, so I think I’ll have to. But I don’t know.
“These situations where I’ve had to play the support role for my team-mate, they have been paying off. It’s been kind of valuable to us.
“I don’t love the way the rules are, that it’s possible, I would love it to not be possible at all.
“But since the rules are as they are. I didn’t make the rules, I think there’s stuff to be looked at there. For myself, I’m on 10 points, so yeah I have to be careful not to get a race ban.”
