Stewards plan to grill FIA over rule-change after Kevin Magnussen enrages rivals

Stewards plan to ask the FIA about a rule-change after Kevin Magnussen’s controversial tactics in the sprint race at the F1 Miami Grand Prix.

Magnussen intentionally held up rivals in the midfield by regularly driving off-track, which cost him time but allowed him to maintain position.

Haas driver Magnussen was hit with three separate 10-second penalties for his driving, and later admitted his goal was to help Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg secure P7.

Lewis Hamilton was stuck in a race-long scrap with Magnussen.

Magnussen was cleared of unsportsmanlike behaviour by the stewards.

But the stewards’ report said: "Moving forward, the stewards will need to consider if, in appropriate situations, especially in the case of repeat infringements, the penalties to be applied for each infringement need to be increased to discourage scenarios such as those that we found today.

"This is something that we will raise explicitly with the FIA and the stewarding team."

Magnussen could be described as a repeat offender after using similar tactics in Saudi Arabia.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was critical of Magnussen.

"We have a case of behaviour being intentional, in terms of damaging another competitor.

“And this behaviour is perpetuated within the same race and repeated over the same season.

"How can penalties be accumulative? They should be exponential. It is not five plus five plus five equals 15.

"Five plus five plus five equals… maybe you need to spend a weekend at home, with your family, and reflect on your sportsmanship, and then go back!

"It is completely unacceptable. It makes no sense from a sportsmanship point of view and this should be addressed immediately.

"If you are out of the points, getting 20 seconds or whatever [time penalty] doesn't make any difference.

“But for the competitors you have damaged, you have put them out of their race in a deliberate, perpetuated and repeated way."

Stella backed a rule-change to prevent Magnussen’s tactics being used again.

"I am sure the FIA will look into that and will come to a sensible proposal for the Sporting Advisory Committee to evaluate,” he said.

“Hopefully these will soon become rules or guidelines that the stewards can apply."