Kevin Magnussen, Haas, Sochi Autodrom, 2019

Magnussen: FIA made a mistake with penalty for cutting “crap corner”

2019 Russian Grand Prix

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Kevin Magnussen says he feels “let down by the FIA” over his penalty for failing to rejoin the track correctly when he went off at turn two.

The Haas driver was given a five-second time penalty after the stewards ruled he failed to drive around both sets of bollards after going off. Magnussen said the penalty was “bullshit” when asked about it by RaceFans after the race.

“We have this turn two which is a crap corner,” he said. “It’s just stupid. Just put gravel there or something.

“I know there’s a lot of I’m not a safety expert, I never will be. But I think the way it happened today was that I missed that corner, went through a lot of crap off-line on the run-off, lost a hell of a lot of time and got penalised by my own fault.

“The FIA did not have to do anything because I didn’t completely miss, it wasn’t black or white. And yet they chose to give me a penalty.”

Drivers were told that “any driver who fails to negotiate turn two by using the track, and who passes completely to the left of the first orange kerb element prior to the apex, must rejoin the track by driving to the left of the white blocks and remaining to the left of the orange block in the run off.”

“We’ve been told that if you miss both of the kerbs you have to take both of the bollards,” said Magnussen. “I did one-and-a-half missed. So you could say it’s a grey area and they had a choice and still they chose to give a penalty.”

Magnussen said the penalty “overshadowed” what had been a good race for him. “I can’t even say disappointed it is more like you know I feel let down by the FIA.”

“I have a feeling that they’ve made a mistake and that they’re going to see that and do a better job next time,” he added. “They’re human as well so they they can make mistakes but I hope they see that they’ve made a mistake.”

He pointed out other drivers have committed similar violations in the past without being penalised. “We’ve seen [it] many times,” said Magnussen. “I can remember Barcelona where someone went off the track in turn a load of times with no consequence.”

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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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21 comments on “Magnussen: FIA made a mistake with penalty for cutting “crap corner””

  1. What is the reason behind not changing street track layouts when it seems so obvious that two or three corner angle changes would make a world of difference?

    There are two overtaking possibilities and both of those lead to 90 degree turns. Why? Why not 120 or 150 degree turns? What prevents them making these changes? There seems to be enough asphalt there.

    1. @f1mre Well, now there isn’t really a point to change the layout anymore since this venue looks set to become non-existent following next season’s race despite the ongoing contract till 2025.

  2. Truest part of the comment is to call Sochi turn 2 crap corner.

  3. I guess you was not apex enough Kevin you are racing differnet beasts to Humans

  4. “I can remember Barcelona where someone went off the track in turn a load of times with no consequence.”
    – From which season?

    1. Ask Sainz for instance

  5. Stop making excuses magnussen, you know how it works. You have been in racing long enough. You made a mistake by going of the track and then another one by not using the proper re-entry. And then you insult the stewards and use cynical comment about them. This just shows you are just a child and with everything you pulled over the years, racing is better off without you.

    1. His true on the missed curbs – he did not miss both and do not insult the stewards. So why is the penalty the same whether gaining or loosing and if for safety or other, why did the TR guy not get a penalty in same race?
      Mag’s car would have needed a rally handbrake in order to go left and sharp then > 90 deg right behind the narrow the white markings, not possible to turn a F1 this sharp from his angle. He was approaching towards them directly from inside track position.
      Also, its common that most on the grid do not agree when punished, so you will be busy if following up on this matter except for MAG. How often are MAG making excuses, normally his just say so when he makes errors, you must mistake him by someone else regarding excuses or refresh your adopted subconscious program in this regard, but like every single driver on grid he don’t agree on penalty, and was right about the grey area in this situation as he were neither gaining or missing both curbs or could turn this sharp.

  6. They all know the rules, if you miss the corner you go around the bollard. The stewards have always been consistent on corners like that.

    After the F2 accident earlier there was zero chance of them not penalising this

    1. They were even consistent today in F2/F3, I think it was Daruvala did basically the same thing as Magnussen and got the same penalty, before the F2 crash even happened.

  7. Gasley went off at the same corner and didn’t even attempt to go round the bolards and the stewards did nothing.

  8. The stewards were handing out black/white flags all race until this penalty so I can see why he is upset. Commentators were saying the same thing about letting them race.

    1. @jimfromus, as has been pointed out though, all of the drivers had been given an explicit instruction on how they were meant to re-enter the track, and would have known that the FIA had already penalised drivers in the Formula 2 support race for not obeying that instruction.

      He should have known that the stewards would immediately penalise anybody who did exactly what he did – he was the one who chose to not comply, presumably because he was more interested in rejoining the track as quickly as possible to avoid losing too many more places.

      1. And the Torro Rosso?

      2. Here is the explicit instruction, from Race Directors’ Event Notes Version 3, 12.1, where it says: “Any driver who fails to negotiate Turn 2 by using the track, and who passes completely to the left of the first orange kerb element prior to the apex, must re-join the track by driving to the left of the white blocks and remaining to the left of the orange block in the run off.”

        Notice this part: “…and who passes completely to the left of the first orange kerb…”.

        KMag did *not* pass completely to the left of the orange kerb. In fact he bumped it with all four wheels, the leftmost part of the orange kerb being at least 1 meter to the left of his car. You can see this clearly, if you follow the onboard camera from Perez’s car.

        1. Well spotted. The turning radius of the cars just isn’t tight enough to make such a sharp turn.

        2. And people wonder why F1 have a rule for everything. This is it. Drivers don’t want to use logic, but instead take everything so literally that everything has to be spelled out in the rulebook.

  9. Perhaps he should be disqualified for a one race to clear his head, especially after Mazepin crash.

  10. So you can push your opponent off track and get away with an ‘black & white’ flag but you slip off the circuit at that corner effecting no one else and get a +5 secs penalty? Dont sound right to me….

  11. The corner was the same for everyone. All drivers must have been told how to handle going off the track at the drivers’ briefing. The only person who caused this kind of problem was him. So I fal to see why the corner or the stewards should be at fault here. All Magnussen seems to do is play hardball with other drivers, himself unable to admit a mistake when, clearly, he made one.

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