Unsportsmanlike Magnussen shows: there is no place for him in Formula 1
Column
- Ludo van Denderen
Nico Hulkenberg once said it about Kevin Magnussen in a heated debate: "The most unsporting driver on the grid," said the German after a collision at the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix. Hulkenberg and Magnussen are now teammates at Haas, but the Dane has not yet lost the stigma of 'most unsporting driver'. Indeed, during the sprint race in Miami, he was even given 35 penalty seconds for doing several indecent manoeuvres to keep rivals behind him. Surely the point has now been reached where F1 becomes off-limits for such an unsportsmanlike driver.
Retrospectively, they were apt statements about Magnussen. "I congratulated him for the most unsporting driver of the whole grid once again. When it comes to racing, he's just nasty. Hard defending is fine, but when he does this, it's just ruthless and sending people into the wall. What he did there, opening up the steering, making me run wide, it's just being an asshole basically."
Magnussen went way over the edge
Those were the words of Hulkenberg in 2017. These could also be the words of Lewis Hamilton, as he was the main victim of Magnussen's prowess in Miami, cutting the track several times to stay ahead of the Mercedes driver. Despite an initial penalty - then you should have been warned - Magnussen continued with his indecent tactics, much to the displeasure of the FIA stewards, who eventually imposed a 35-second time penalty and gave Magnussen three penalty points on his licence.
Hard racing, that's totally fine. This is Formula 1. There should be a nail-biting fight. But what Magnussen did was particularly rude. Indeed, the Dane frankly admitted that he did his actions deliberately, in the team's interest. Nico Hulkenberg had no trouble with Hamilton for a long time thanks to Magnussen. So in that sense, the mission was successful. But Magnussen did harm Formula 1 with his way of racing. No one and really no one, wants to see a driver take his advantage in such an unfair way, then be punished for it and in the end basically say: 'Too bad stewards, I'll do what I feel like anyway'.
Magnussen, a repeat offender
Unfortunately - as the example with Hulkenberg from 2017 makes clear - this is not a one-off incident. Over the years, Magnussen has become known as someone who takes the dirty approach quite often, probably for lack of talent or decent equipment. Perhaps there was frustration on Saturday, as Magnussen had to acknowledge his superiority to his faster teammate Hulkenberg for the umpteenth time this season.
With so much ill-sportsmanship, so little performance and so much chasing of Hulkenberg, Haas F1 should really ask itself whether it wants to continue with Magnussen. Is there really no better driver to be found than a 31-year-old driver who has not taken his team Haas one step forward in seven seasons?