George Russell explains why Kevin Magnussen deserved his race ban for the Azerbaijan GP

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Kevin Magnussen will miss this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix after receiving an automatic one-race ban. Magnussen has accrued 12 penalty points over the course of a year, which triggers a suspension within the rules.

He’s the first driver to fall foul of the penalty points system since it was introduced in 2014. Magnussen had been hovering precariously on 10 since the Miami GP, where he accumulated five in a single weekend.

At the Italian GP last time out, the stewards punished him for causing a collision with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. He received a 10-second penalty and two points, taking him to the threshold.

Haas have called upon reserve driver Oliver Bearman as his replacement. Bearman will race for the team full-time next year alongside Esteban Ocon.

Magnussen, a veteran of 179 Grands Prix, will be absent for one could be one of the last races of his F1 career. As he prepares to leave the team, he doesn’t appear to be in contention for any vacancies elsewhere.

The last driver to receive a race ban was Romain Grosjean back in 2012. But that stemmed from his role in a multi-car accident on the first lap of the Belgian GP, rather than an accumulation of incidents.

George Russell says previous Kevin Magnussen penalties weren’t ‘harsh enough’

Speaking to outlets including Crash.net ahead of the race in Baku, Mercedes driver George Russell offered his verdict on Magnussen’s sanctions. In addition to being one of the pre-eminent racers in the sport, Russell is also the chair of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association.

The GPDA work to improve safety within F1, as well as preserve drivers’ interests more generally. However, Russell has rejected any notion that the penalty points system is too draconian, pointing out that Magnussen is the first driver to be banned for more than a decade.

He admits that the punishment he received in Monza was ‘harsh’. But equally, he feels that the 31-year-old got off lightly for some earlier incidents.

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Russell may be referring to the start of the Monaco GP in May, when he tangled with Sergio Perez, leading to a huge crash that also took teammate Nico Hulkenberg out of the race. Magnussen wasn’t penalised, with the stewards inclined to take a more lenient approach to lap-one investigations.

“It’s a conversation which has been had in previous years as drivers sail close to the wind,” Russell said. “No-one has been banned in 12 years so, you could argue, were the penalty points harsh enough?

“His penalty points in Monza were harsh but you could argue that some of the others were not harsh enough. Also, we need to set a precedent for the junior series. You shouldn’t be able to get away with dangerous or erratic driving. At some point, you need to be punished for it.”

Jolyon Palmer says Kevin Magnussen has fallen victim to F1 ‘career killer’

Magnussen would argue that he’s suffered the consequences of protecting his team’s interests. The stewards penalised him in Saudi Arabia, for instance, for contact with Alex Albon as he tried to hold up the cars behind and create a gap for Hulkenberg.

In Miami, he did all he could – inside and outside the boundaries of the regulations – to keep Lewis Hamilton at bay in the Sprint race, again helping Hulkenberg. He’s only scored six points himself, but he’s contributed to more.

Jolyon Palmer says Hulkenberg is a career-killer, and his dominance in the intra-team battle may have cost Magnussen his spot on the grid. The German, who’s headed to Sauber/Audi for next year, leads 12-3 in both qualifying and the race.

Jenson Button says Magnussen was caught out by the difficulty of F1, having seen him making his debut at McLaren back in 2014. He’s failed to score a podium or win a race across three spells in the sport.