In the round-up: Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu admitted Kevin Magnussen has been too aggressive at times after he received a one-race ban.
In brief
Magnussen will return after serving ban
Magnussen will miss the next round in Azerbaijan after becoming the first Formula 1 driver to earn an automatic race ban for collecting 12 penalty points on his licence. Komatsu said he accepted the stewards’ decision.
“Kev races hard, he races aggressively and in some occasions the penalty he had, maybe he was too aggressive,” Komatsu told Viaplay. “And this time around he was trying hard and then locked up and then put Gasly off the track. So he got a penalty, I accept that.”
However Komatsu said Magnussen “drove a fantastic race” to ensure he still scored a point after his 10-second time penalty was applied. He also confirmed Magnussen will return to the car to complete the season after serving his ban.
Ferrari’s weakness now a strength – Vasseur
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said Charles Leclerc’s victory in the Italian Grand Prix using a one-stop strategy shows the team have made their tyre management into a strength.“Last year tyre management was our biggest weakness whereas now I think it’s one of the advantages we have with this car,” he said.
“It was already the case last week in Zandvoort and now we are quite consistent in terms of race pace to the point that we did think it might be a two-stop but then we saw very low degradation in the second stint and we changed our strategy accordingly and Charles had the race under control all the time. It was a risk, but sometimes you have to take risks and today it worked.”
Mini disqualified after losing title
Gabriele Mini’s disappointment at losing the Formula 3 championship at the last corner of yesterday’s finale was compounded when he was disqualified from the race. The stewards found Mini’s front and rear tyres were below the minimum allowed pressure.
Leonardo Fornaroli’s championship victory, which he originally appeared to secure with a last-lap pass on Christian Mansell, is unaffected by the decision. He was promoted to second place, equalling his best result of the season.
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Links
Wolff open to bringing Verstappen to Mercedes as Norris on Italian F1 GP pole (The Guardian)
'There’s no discussion, there’s no second thoughts about what we’re doing in 2026 because now it’s about 2024 and 2025. If flirting outside happens, then these guys will know it at the same time, when we have those discussions.'
How Gasly would spend a weekend in Milan (BBC)
'His ultra-insider, super exclusive nightclub pick? 'Justme Milano,' he says. 'The nights after Formula 1; that's where they do the after party.''
Extended Highlights 2024 Milwaukee Mile 250s - Race One (IndyCar)
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Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
A new wrinkle in the power of Pato Who: #IndyCar chatter is that talks with Mexico City are now officially up and sprinting.
— Jenna Fryer (@JennaFryer) September 1, 2024
A frustrating final lap for @astonmartinf1:@alo_oficial was 0.1s away from beating Magnussen to the final point after the Haas driver's penalty.@lance_stroll put on a set of soft tyres in a bid to take the fastest lap but was beaten by Norris on his worn hards.#F1
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) September 1, 2024
Wud much rather see Ferrari red- build the brand…. pic.twitter.com/ZsERwRjqGo
— Derek Daly (@DerekDaly500) September 1, 2024
Again – this mainly p*sses me off because it’s another example of Max getting something easier than he should. Other teams would be much more ruthless. But Max finally has a title challenge and the team he’s competing against are seemingly uninterested in making it remotely hard.
— Brad Philpot 🏎🏁 (@BradleyPhilpot) September 1, 2024
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Comment of the day
@Esploratore1 was surprised to see the stewards hand Magnussen a ban:
He kept Alonso behind in the end, and was the only one apart from Albon to get into the points without a top car, it’s not unthinkable that Haas might not have the pace to be in the points next race, making the ban unimpactful.
I have to say I’m surprised they gave him enough points to reach 12, though, for example I was sure they’d have only given one point for a minor infraction like this given he had 10 already, and given they usually jump through hoops to not ban drivers this way.
@Esploratore1
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Katederby, Notna, Derek Taylor and F1Tshif!
Chaitanya
2nd September 2024, 3:40
Magnussen doesn’t deserve to be in F1
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd September 2024, 6:33
He finally admitted that aspect, although his post-Azerbaijan GP return goes even without saying.
Aston Martin was unlucky that the gap wasn’t less than ten seconds at the chequered flag.
I couldn’t agree more with Brad Philpot.
McLaren simply isn’t maximizing opportunities to close the points gap in the drivers’ championship by greater amounts at a time.
Roughly eight points on average is unfortunately insufficient when Max consistently scores points even in races where Red Bull Racing struggles a lot.
Even if Haas were to have enough pace for points on merit in Baku, they could still achieve something even with Bearman.
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
2nd September 2024, 7:29
In the driving standard discussion, it still feels like it depends on the consequence more than on the actions.
Was Perez late move not as bad at Magnussen? But since Russell took avoiding action and reacted quickly, no consequence and it didn’t even get investigated.
If they want drivers to learn through getting points for “bad” driving, they shouldn’t only check on events based on their consequences.
(just taking Perez exemple as it is the most recent but others can be found easily)
Aquila_GD
2nd September 2024, 9:03
All this talk of how Mclaren should use team orders to give Norris position is completing against any racing ethos/mantra
“The faster car/driver should finish ahead”
Norris did not deserve to finish ahead of Piastri yesterday as he had a poor race. He was caught napping at the second corner.
Now while I do want Norris to step up and win the championship, I’d feel very bad if he did not deserve it or it got handed to him because of team orders
MichaelN
2nd September 2024, 9:57
On the other hand, it’s a team sport. It’s just that there’s a weird anomaly in the series called the driver’s championship. But the teams all recognize that this is probably more important than the team’s championship.
So in that sense, since McLaren gets the same number of points for finishing 2nd and 3rd as they do for finishing 3rd and 2nd, it seems like a pretty simple choice to swap the cars around. But they seem determined not to learn from history. Norris and Brown should ask Alonso if it matters if you get a handful of extra points over the course of a season thanks to your teammate. The dude is like 10 points short of three extra titles (in 2007, 2010 and 2012). Jean Todt also learned this lesson by missing the titles in 1997, 1998 and 1999. He never made that mistake again, and was ruthless in his application of team orders, even if it led to widespread criticism at the time.
Zak Brown is apparently either confident that Red Bull will further collapse, or he is determined to learn his own lessons in due time, such that in 10 years time he’ll be asked ‘do you think you could have won in 2024’, and he’ll nod and say that it’s one of the big regrets in his career.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
2nd September 2024, 14:23
No such racing ethos exists, Never has.
The only thing that matters to teams is winning & team orders of various kinds have existed in the sport since day 1 in order to help them achieve that.
Fans may not like team orders but as a team if you have even a slim chance of going for the championship you have to take every opportunity you get else you are only guaranteed to lose it. When you have a big performance advantage over the rest as Mclaren have at times in the past then you can get away with having 2 drivers you treat equally but when your advantage is slim or your coming from behind you have to give priority to your best shot.
I don’t think McLaren have the mindset to be able to win a championship right now.
Craig
2nd September 2024, 9:47
It’s probably for the better Fornaroli snatched the championship from Mini on the last lap as that would have been a hell of a blow to lose the championship to tyres being under pressure.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
2nd September 2024, 11:20
Yes, a champion with no wins is bonkers enough, without getting there on a disqualification!
Chert
2nd September 2024, 9:48
If Magnussen is banned for the next race, Haas can put Bearman to take his place, right?
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
2nd September 2024, 14:02
Apparently Magnussen’s bad has really frustrated most of the drivers & they plan to discuss the penalty point system at the next drivers briefing with the aim of starting a dialogue to change it for next season.
The GPDA are apparently of the view that if a licence penalty point system is going to be used points should only be handed out for major infractions rather than for things such as track limits & smaller racing incidents. There is also a view that race bans should only be handed out for the most serious offences (As used to be the case) & that getting a race ban for a series of minor things isn’t fair & isn’t what racing should be about.
Pierre Gasly was telling reporters post race that he didn’t believe Magnussen should have got a penalty at all for the collision as it was just a “nothing racing incident”. He apparently wanted to go & see the stewards to tell them he felt the penalty was incorrect but wasn’t allowed to as he wasn’t summoned to see them.
sam
2nd September 2024, 16:58
Someone in the team is encouraging his driving (style). It’s been going on for a long time.
SteveP
2nd September 2024, 19:55
Way to go on the throwing under the bus, Komatsu.
Who sent him out there with orders to block other drivers by any means?