FIA Reportedly Introducing Harsher Penalties After Driver Kevin Magnussen Racked Them Up In Miami

Haas' Kevin Magnussen put on a show in the Miami Sprint Race, but it wasn't the kind of performance the FIA was particularly jazzed about.

Magnussen toed the line of legality — by which I mean he totally crossed it — in a bid to jam up the field so that his teammate Nick Hulkenberg could snag a couple of points. He took three penalties for leaving the track and gaining an advantage while trying to keep Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes behind him, and while he was eventually dinged with 40 seconds in penalties, Magnussen was far enough outside the points in the Sprint (where points only go to the top 8) that it didn't matter.

As a fan, I loved it. I love when drivers play the team game and this wasn't even the first time in 2024 that Magnussen has done something like that. He did virtually the same thing in Saudi Arabia to help Hulkenberg — and therefore the team — steal a few points.

Of course, we all knew that there was no way the powers that be would let this kind of tactic stay. The penalties Magnussen was getting were previously 5 seconds but are now for 10 seconds, and clearly, it was a deterrent the way they had hoped.

Kevin Magnussen's defending against Mercedes Lewis Hamilton — which involved racking up penalties — was a major point of controversy in Miami. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

FIA Considering Drive-Through Penalties For Repeated Offenses

So what do they do now? Well, according to a report from Motorsport.com, the FIA is considering making the offending driver serve a drive-through penalty after repeated offenses.

This is interesting because it would take the offending off the track which would let the cars behind him through. That would fix the problem in Miami (and Saudi Arabia for that matter) with Magnussen, who just did whatever he had to in order to ruin other drivers' races once his was over.

Again, there's part of me that loves the team strategy, but to use an F1 cliche, it goes "against the spirit" of the sporting regulations.

It seems like something needs to be done, because some team personnel were hot under the collar, and this seems like a reasonable solution.

The FIA, race stewards, and teams are expected to discuss this on Friday ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola this weekend.