Martin Brundle slams ‘silly’ £75k-a-week driver after ‘unnecessary’ display in Miami

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The Miami Grand Prix weekend was packed with incidents. With an extra 100km of racing thanks to Saturday’s sprint, there was more opportunity for the drives to tangle.

And sure enough, we saw contact contact almost immediately. Fernando Alonso found himself squeezed at turn one, with a late-braking Lewis Hamilton to his right and teammate Lance Stroll on his left.

The resulting contact would take both Stroll and the unsuspecting bystander Lando Norris out of the race. McLaren CEO Zak Brown was unhappy with Hamilton’s ‘overly aggressive’ driving.

Unlike Carlos Sainz on race day, though, the Mercedes driver didn’t receive a penalty. Sainz engaged in a prolonged battle with Oscar Piastri and couldn’t execute a clean pass.

• READ MORE: 5 unforgettable Miami GP moments including Lando Norris’ crash

He dived down the inside of the McLaren at the penultimate corner but locked up as he struggled to slow the car down. This led to a collision with Piastri, seriously damaging his front wing.

The Australian had to pit for repairs, which meant his race was effectively over. Sainz, meanwhile, saw five seconds added to his race time and dropped below Sergio Perez down to fifth.

But the most significant coming together of all involved the Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Williams’ Logan Sargeant. Magnussen tried to execute a ‘switch-back’ manoeuvre on Sargeant coming out of turn one and refused to back out on the entry to turn three after failing to get ahead.

His opponent turned in to take the corner as normal and was sent into a 180-degree spin before sliding into the tyre barrier. That took him out of the race, while Magnussen was able to continue.

Martin Brundle shakes his head at Kevin Magnussen after Miami Grand Prix

Writing in his post-race column for Sky Sports F1, Martin Brundle castigated Magnussen. He felt he’d shown poor judgement in attempting the unorthodox overtake.

And he also sympathisers with a Williams team who now face another considerable repair bill. The Grove outfit have already amassed over £2m worth of crash damage this year.

Brundle said: “In the race Magnussen’s crash with Sargeant was just silly and unnecessary, and created yet another pile of broken parts for the Williams team which is having rather a nightmare start to 2024.”

Will Kevin Magnussen receive a race ban?

Magnussen amassed a whopping five penalty points over the course of the race weekend. For context, one more and you’d be halfway to a race ban.

The Dane earned the first three for his conduct in his fight with Hamilton in Saturday’s sprint. Magnussen desperately defended eighth position to build a gap for teammate Nico Hulkenberg ahead.

In doing so, he left the track without justification multiple times, at least according to the stewards. He was penalised so severely that he fell to 18th in the final classification.

Haas bosses are apparently ‘pretty cross’ with Magnussen after he implied after the race that he had little choice but to drive in the manner that he did. And he won’t have helped matters by taking out Sargeant.

That earned him two more penalty points to increase his overall tally to 10. He must now keep his nose clean for the best part of a year to avoid a race ban.

Missing a race through suspension could significantly damage Magnussen’s chances of staying in F1. Hulkenberg has relieved some of the pressure by joining Audi, opening up a clear vacancy for Oliver Bearman.

But even though Bearman may no longer be putting the £75k-a-week man (Spotrac) under pressure, other drivers potentially could. For instance, Valtteri Bottas is a contender for a seat at Haas if he leaves Sauber, and he may be seen as a safer pair of hands.