(Motorsports news) In the sprint race, Magnussen again held up midfield rivals to assist Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg in securing points, mirroring his strategies from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Magnussen went off four times this time to avoid losing positions, which ultimately cost him thirty-five seconds in penalties. More importantly, though, it did not stop him from tracking position until Hulkenberg was safe to take home two points in seventh place.

Stella strongly disagreed with Magnussen’s subsequent exoneration of unsportsmanlike behavior, arguing that the Dane’s persistent tactics indicate the necessity for the FIA to intervene and modify its regulations.

We have an instance where a competitor’s actions are deliberate in their attempts to harm another, and these actions are repeated inside the same race and over the same season,” Stella said.

In what way are fines cumulative? They ought to be exponential. Five plus five plus five does not equal fifteen.

“Maybe you should spend a weekend at home with your family, evaluate your sportsmanship, and then return… five + five plus five equals…

“It is completely inappropriate. From a sportsmanship perspective, it makes no sense, and this needs to be fixed right away.

It doesn’t matter if you receive 20 seconds or anything else if you are out of points. But in a purposeful, persistent, and repeated manner, you have eliminated the competitors you have hurt from the race.”

Stella responded to a question from Motorsport.com about possible explanations for why it hadn’t been handled since Jeddah by saying, “I don’t think they may have a reason why not. Maybe all that startled them was that this kept happening.

“I’m confident the FIA will investigate that and develop a reasonable recommendation for the Sporting Advisory Committee to consider. Hopefully, the stewards will be able to apply these as regulations or guidelines shortly.”

Reverting to requiring drivers to give up a position instead of allowing the teams to decide for themselves and threatening drive-throughs instead of the frequently pointless time penalties is an easy option for race control.

Lando Norris of McLaren stated, “That’s as drivers what we’ve asked for, but they don’t want to do it.” “They say it’s up to us.”

Oscar Piastri, a teammate, said that forcing drivers to give up their places had drawbacks as well, but he believed that in “blatant” situations like Magnussen, it should be simple to implement. 

“There are certain scenarios where giving the position back is very difficult,” Piastri said.

“If you pass someone and the FIA requests that you give it back, but you end up falling behind more people, is that still fair?

However, in [Magnussen’s] case, it is obvious that all those issues would be resolved if the FIA had declared, “You must return the position; otherwise, it is a drive-through.”

“If you know you’re going to face a drive-through, you’re going to give the position back.”

“Are the fans going to say, ‘Oh, this is way too harsh,’ if you go off by 10 centimeters and it’s not clear on the TV or if you pulled off the world’s best overtake?” he said.

“It’s really hard to police it that way, but the FIA ought to be able to intervene if it’s obvious.

“The fact that it’s not the first time and the driver is openly admitting he deserves the penalties and did it for the team, to me that’s wrong.”

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