Kevin Magnussen told he ‘can’t be proud’ of tactics by his former F1 boss

Guenther Steiner says his former F1 driver Kevin Magnussen “can’t be proud” of his controversial tactics in Miami which have left him on the verge of a race ban.

Magnussen was handed three 10-second time penalties for repeatedly leaving the track and gaining advantages, as well as a one five-second penalty for track-limits abuse in his defence against Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton during the Miami Grand Prix sprint race.

The Dane racked up five penalty points on his superlicence across the weekend in Florida and is potentially just one more incident away from triggering an automatic race ban.

Magnussen, who was also penalised in Jeddah for using similar tactics against Yuki Tsunoda, must tread carefully for the rest of the season as all 10 of his existing points have been accumulated in the first six races of 2024.

Former Haas team principal Steiner has weighed in on Magnussen’s actions, telling Sky Deutschland: “It has to be fair play. You can be aggressive, but we’ve seen this game for the second time [Jeddah also].

“As a driver, you can’t be proud if you ruin someone else’s race.”

Steiner believes a drive-through penalty would be a better punishment for repeat offences of such tactics.

“Once you get the first ten seconds, it doesn’t matter whether you get another ten seconds. That’s why a drive-through penalty is definitely noticeable,” he said.

“You then have to take this penalty within a few laps and then you’re gone and can’t cause any further trouble.”

Magnussen admitted his penalties were “well deserved” for his “stupid tactics”.

“I started using these stupid tactics, which I don’t like doing,” he told Sky Sports F1. “But, at the end of the day, I did my job as a team player.

“Nico [Hulkenberg, Haas teammate] scored his points because I got that gap for him. Lewis and Tsunoda couldn’t catch him. Not the way I like to go racing, at all, but [was] what I had to do today.”