Kevin Magnussen reacts to race ban fears and rule-change claim

Kevin Magnussen has admitted that he will have to make changes to the way he goes racing in F1 after moving closer to a suspension.

Magnussen has accrued 10 penalty points in the opening six rounds, putting him just two away from a race ban.

A driver hasn’t been forced to sit out an F1 grand prix due to acquiring too many penalty points since the system was introduced in 2014.

Similarly, a driver hasn’t been hit with a race ban since Romain Grosjean in 2012.

Magnussen endured a torrid weekend last time out in Miami, picking up four penalties in the sprint race alone as he attempted to fend off Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton.

The Dane has been in the wars during the early part of the season, often defending hard to help teammate Nico Hulkenberg score points.

Addressing his penalty point situation ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Magnussen conceded that he will be forced to adjust his on-track behaviour to avoid picking up a race ban.

“I think the next time it’s a race ban, so I think I’ll have to,” he said. “But I don’t know. These situations where I’ve had to play the support role for my teammate, they have been paying off. It’s been kind of valuable to us.

“I don’t love the way the rules are, that it’s possible, I would love it to not be possible at all. But since the rules are as they are. I didn’t make the rules, I think there’s stuff to be looked at there.

“For myself, I’m on 10 points, so yeah I have to be careful not to get a race ban.”

Magnussen has called on the FIA to make changes to how penalty points awarded, particularly as there are now 24 races on the F1 calendar.

“The fact I’m at risk of a race ban for driving outside of some white lines on a piece of tarmac, I don’t know if I feel that is right,” he added. “But it is the way the rules are. So you know, I accept that. But I feel there’s room for improvement there, not only in terms of the points.

“There are more races now than there was when they were introduced. I feel you can end up getting a race ban effectively for a very minor thing. So that’s what I feel.”

Magnussen's solution 

The former McLaren driver also suggested that the FIA should communicate then they should hand back a decision to avoid being penalised - or an incident being topic for a discussion.

"The best thing would be to for the FIA to tell us to give back positions, and then the consequence for not doing that being harsh, like really harsh, so you make sure that’s being done," he explained. "I think it gets too firstly complicated and also too big a consequence for, you have to be able to leave a bit of room to go over the limit and then come back from that, whereas now if they judge it to be an unfair advantage and it’s a drive-through penalty, I think that’s not good. I’ve raced in IndyCar, and I love the way they race over there, and I feel the rules are very clear and very simple, and the racing is great. 

"The racing has to be great amongst the 20 best drivers in the world. I think that is also part of, one thing is that Formula 1 drivers are fast, but also very good at racing. You have to showcase that. That has to be part of it."