Haas driver Kevin Magnussen has been suspended from racing at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after a collision with Pierre Gasly at the Italian Grand Prix resulted in his 12th penalty point in the past year.
Magnussen has been one major incident away from a suspension since he picked up his 10th penalty point at the Miami Grand Prix in May.
F1 rules state that any driver who amasses 12 penalty points within a 12-month period automatically has their superlicence suspended for a single race, meaning Magnussen not be permitted to race in Baku in two weeks’ time.
He will become the first F1 driver to receive a suspension under the penalty points system since it was introduced in 2014.
Haas has not yet confirmed who will replace Magnussen, but Formula 2 driver Oliver Bearman, who is already signed to replace Magnussen next year and stood in for Carlos Sainz when the Ferrari driver had appendicitis in Saudi Arabia, is the obvious candidate.
Magnussen collided with Gasly at Turn 4 while trying to pass the Alpine driver on the inside. He received an in-race 10-second penalty for the collision but still finished 10th and scored a single point.
“On the approach to Turn 4, Car 20 [Magnussen] attempted to overtake Car 10 [Gasly] on the inside,” a stewards statement said.
“Whilst Car 20 had its front axle past the mirror of Car 10, the Driving Standards Guidelines specify that an overtaking car has to “be driven in a safe and controlled manner throughout the manoeuvre”.
“The stewards determined that this was not the case for Car 20 and hence the driver was wholly to blame for the collision and hence the standard penalty and penalty points are allocated.”
Speaking before the two additional penalty points were confirmed, Magnussen said he did not believe the incident was worthy of a ten-second penalty.
“Yeah, I’m frustrated about the penalty — I don’t understand it at all. Flat out, just completely confused,” he said.
“We raced hard into Turn 4, we had slight contact and we both missed the corner, we came back on track again, no damage to either car, no consequence in the race for either of us and I get a 10-second penalty.”
When told he would get two-penalty points, Magnussen added: “I only know I have the two points from you, I haven’t heard it officially.
“But I said all the time I am not going to hold back, it doesn’t make sense. I scored a point today, so see you later.”
Williams boss James Vowles has apologised to Mick Schumacher after saying the son of seven-times world champion and Ferrari great, Michael, was good but “not special.”
Vowles made the comment on Friday in explaining why Williams had preferred Argentine F2 racer Franco Colapinto over the more experienced Mercedes reserve as a replacement for dropped American Logan Sargeant.
“First and foremost, I’m not here to put Mick down,” Vowles told F1 television.
“Mick is in a world championship team that have chosen him as a reserve driver, and there’s good reason behind it.
It’s because he’s an incredibly strong candidate.
“The word special, I used it in the context of multiple world champions like Ayrton Senna, Lewis [Hamilton] as well. Clearly that’s a foolish thing to do, because that’s the comparison.”
Schumacher was dropped by Haas after two seasons and at the end of 2022.
He has now been passed over by Mercedes, Renault-owned Alpine — with whom he has raced in world endurance — and Williams when they had F1 vacancies to fill.
Vowles said Williams’ decision was because they wanted to use a driver from their own academy and he had apologised personally to Schumacher.
“He didn’t request anything, but it’s important to me, because he’s incredibly close to me and it just came across entirely the wrong way,” he said. “More than anything else, I wanted that to be abundantly clear.”
By ESPN
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