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criticism of stewards for failure to punish magnussen

Stewards receive criticism after Perez crash: 'Didn't do job properly'

28 May at 10:30
Last update 28 May at 10:39
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  • Corwin Kunst

Sergio Perez 's huge crash - involving both Haas F1 drivers and Kevin Magnussen playing the biggest part in it - did not result in any penalties in Monaco. The stewards dismissed it as a racing incident. That caused puzzled reactions from Christian Klien and David Coulthard, two former Formula 1 drivers, among others.

After the first corner, Perez, Magnussen and Hulkenberg drove three thickly up the hill towards the casino. This did not fit and eventually resulted in a crash. All three were unable to continue their way and little was left of Perez's RB20. At first glance, Magnussen seemed to have had the biggest part in the mega-crash, but the stewards thought otherwise.

"They didn't do their job properly," Klien made a harsh judgment at ServusTV. "If you know the circuit, then you know you shouldn't be doing things here at this time. Especially not when the race is still so long, you don't drive anywhere near points, and to make matters worse, your teammate nods out of the race. [...] All in all, Magnussen was just too aggressive in this situation and I think he should have been penalised for that."

Magnussen lucky

Coulthard was of the same opinion. “The stewards have put it down as a racing incident, but that accident was caused because Magnussen stuck his nose in and the chances of outdragging him up the hill and around the outside on a non-straight, slim and none," he analysed on behalf of Channel 4. "If that had been on any other lap in the Grand Prix, I think Magnussen would be looking at a little holiday from Formula 1."

Magnussen is on 10 penalty points in Formula 1. Once the Dane reaches 12 points, a Grand Prix suspension will follow. Two penalty points are often handed out for crashes if a driver is singled out as the main culprit, and so it can rightly be said that Magnussen had some luck.

This article was written in collaboration with Sophia Crothall.