Kevin Magnussen, Haas, Sochi Autodrom, 2019

“Stupid, idiotic steward” cost Magnussen eighth place

2019 Russian Grand Prix

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Haas team principal Guenther Steiner hit out at the stewards over the penalty which cost Kevin Magnussen eighth place in the Russian Grand Prix.

Magnussen took the chequered flag in eighth place but was dropped to ninth place by a five-second time penalty. After the race Steiner congratulated Magnussen on the team radio but criticised the decision.

“If we wouldn’t have a stupid, idiotic steward we would be eighth,” said Steiner. “Thanks, a great job guys, fantastic. Thanks Kevin, great job in driving thank you.”

Magnussen replied: “Thanks buddy. What a load of bullshit.”

The stewards penalised Magnussen for failing to rejoin the track correctly after he went off at turn two. “The stewards reviewed video evidence and the driver of car 20 left the track at turn two and did not pass to the left of both bollards as per the instructions in the race director’s event notes 12.1.”

As well as his five-second time penalty, Magnussen was given a penalty point on his licences, taking him to a total of five for the current 12-month period. The penalty dropped him to ninth place in the final classification, which scored Haas’s first points since the German Grand Prix.

The Russian Grand Prix stewards were Gerd Ennser, Andrew Mallalieu, Emanuele Pirro and George Andreev.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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35 comments on ““Stupid, idiotic steward” cost Magnussen eighth place”

  1. Not sure what Magnussen (or Steiner) expected, the bollard slalom was there for a reason, and he went another way. I can’t really feel bad for them losing out a bit (and they are lucky Norris kept enough distance to not allow Hulk, Stroll within 5s of Magnussen too, by the way).

    1. @bosyber, as you say, if the drivers have been given an explicit instruction to rejoin the track at a specific point, and if Magnussen had clearly not followed those rules, it’s ultimately Magnussen’s fault for that.

    2. @bosyber +1

      If Renault and Ricciardo get penalised for a cut and dry breaking a technical rule (Singapore) despite gaining no benefit, same should apy here for K-Mag. We all want consistency, for once we got it. No complaints. The penalty only cost him one further place. Count yourself lucky!

      1. Technical rules and driver rules are not the same nor should they applied in the same way.
        No consistency there.
        If you break a technical rule it is not important if you had an advantage as a result. Alle technical rules should be followd to the letter.
        Driver rules will always be context dependent and thus applied in that way.

        1. “Car 20 left the track at turn two and did not pass to the left of both bollards as per the instructions in the race director’s event notes 12.1.”

          The context of this one seems easy enough to assess.

    3. Especially after the carnage in the F2 race, it is good that the stewards punish this. I don’t see much reason to complain about a perfectly predictable and deserved penalty either.

  2. It was quite surprising since Magnuessen didnt gain advantage going off the track and he did rejoin safely.

    1. and if there was another car right behind? how about 3 cars? You’d let the driver who in that moment only cares about beating others to make that safety call in 0.3sec?

    2. Did Ricciardo gain an advantage in Singapore Q1? No, but rules are rules. The rules that are explicitly clear cut should always be applied without debate.

      1. By the same logic where are all the penalties for dirty driving(qualifying and race) in Monza or harsh penalties for unsafe release from pitstops(Hokenheim and Monaco)? In this instance Magnussen had already lost time going off the track and rejoining it so this penalty seems like a salt to wounds. MotoGP has far better methods of bringing riders back on track(in places where it can be dangerous rejoining straightaway) and their longlap penalty system is much better than time penalty of F1.

  3. One supposes said steward could respond that had the intelligent, sharp-witted driver taken the route he knew he was supposed to, he would have finished eighth.

  4. The rule that says drivers must go around the bollards when rejoining could be called stupid and idiotic, but not the stewards applying said rule. From the few replays shown, there is absolutely no excuse for not going around properly — nothing to give the stewards a reason to give a special exception to a very clear rule.
    Suck it up.

  5. It’s a stupid rule but a rule, I guess. Unfortunate, he did a decent race.

    1. Mazepin and Matsishita crash shows it’s not a stupid rule.

  6. For those words they should apply another penalty point. But really, how thick are some of these drivers… they go to briefings to discuss these safety track alterations, allowed to voice opinions and ask questions or even ask for changes. Then go on track, not follow the rules and abuse stewards who do?

    1. I think Haas should be penalized harshly for those statements, you simply can’t describe a steward using those words publicly.

    2. @ivan-vinitskyy

      Definitely should fine Steiner.
      Did you see the furore in Aussie V8 Supercars when Jamie Whincup insulted the stewards?

  7. Kmag was on the radio right after the incident, telling Steiner that he had to take that route, because the “right route” was too dangerous from the angle he had.
    One could argue, that the position of the cones was ok if you came down the straight in the racing line, on the left side of the track and miss the apex or braking point. But Kmag came late into the turn, from a rightside defensive position.
    Rules are rules, but i think they could have judged that he was penalised enough in this particular situation.

    1. Well what happened at the F2 sprint race Kmags penalty was obvious.

    2. At first glance,without watching a replay,I thought that he’d be all sorts of trouble if he attempted to go around the first bollard given the trajectory that hiscar speared off on.

      The stewards apparently didn’t think that. I’m all for consistency but I’m wondering what they would have said if he tried to turn left to make that bollard and speared into the wall – seems to me it wouldn’t have been all that easy and downright risky.

      1. after watching the replay (because it wasn’t clear to me either), I disagree. he could have easily made the bollards in safety if he had slowed down a bit. he just didn’t want to slow down. would have lost less time than 5seconds in my opinion too

  8. KMag… such a chav.

  9. But it was the right decision, though, given that everyone was informed beforehand how to rejoin the track there.

    1. Mazepin didn’t and what the outcome…

  10. It appeared to me as though Magnussen re-joined at the correct spot after going around the second bollard, but he missed the first one. I could see why he didn’t go around the first one, but as soon as he did I figured the stewards would have him for that.

  11. Was there a need to name the stewards ?

  12. Gasly went flat out straight to the left ignoring the slalom part and back into the track.
    Nobody said a thing about it.

    1. There is no slalom parts. Just left of all signs.

      1. well, the signs were still there then.

        1. the slalom signs, i mean.

  13. If anyone is stupid it must be Steiner… He is currently the worst team principal after Claire Williams. He is really losing it. First he signed up Grosjean which as always have zero space awareness and now he can’t understand simple rules. This team would be so much better of with someone else leading it.

  14. “Stupid, idiotic steward”

    Kevin winning friends and influencing people as usual.

  15. And yet Charlie boy was allowed to cut the Rettifilo chicane and keep the win even after a black and white flag. great consistancy just don’t include Ferrari at Monza in that.

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