Red Bull demands FIA action on Haas and Kevin Magnussen over shady Saudi Arabian GP strategy

Kevin Magnussen was handed several penalties over the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Danish driver was deemed responsible for multiple incidents on track and amassed penalties of 20 seconds for his questionable tactics. Now, the reigning champions, Red Bull have urged the FIA to take action on the dangerous tactics that were employed by Magnussen and Haas to score a point in Jeddah.

The weekend in Saudi Arabia was dominated by Max Verstappen in his RB20 who led the race from the very beginning. On the other hand, quite a few teams were indulged in a scrap to secure a single point. This forced the midfield runners to employ various techniques including Haas. Moreover, the team left Kevin Magnussen to slow down the field so that his teammate Nico Hülkenberg could come into the pits for a change of tires and score a point.

Magnussen used various antics to slow down the field. After colliding with Alex Albon, the Danish driver made a late lunge on Yuki Tsunoda to maintain track position. Moreover, due to his shenanigans, the Red Bull team implied that such actions should be banned by the FIA.

However, due to his heroics, Haas was able to secure a point at the hands of Hulkenberg. Moreover, the team later iterated that one point was equal to ‘gold dust’ to them. On the contrary, this has raised questions within the penalty system and has awakened the FIA to find some solution to the problem.

Laurent Mekies on the antics of Kevin Magnussen

Due to drivers being stuck in Magnussen’s DRS train, teams felt that the penalties imposed on the 31-year-old remained pointless. Moreover, this frustration was seen in VCARB team principal, Laurent Mekies, who gave his views on the situation.

After the race, Mekies was furious about the driving of Magnussen and stated:

Yuki[Tsunoda] was fighting for what could have been a P10 finish. He was then passed by Magnussen, who cut the track to do so and then slowed down the whole pack to let his team-mate open a gap to pit in front of all of us. It made the penalty imposed on Magnussen meaningless, as it destroyed Yuki’s race.

Laurent Mekies said as reported by motorsport.com

The Italian explained that due to the slow driving of the Dane, Tsunoda lost time to Hulkenberg. This opened up a gap between the two which was enough to get the latter out of the pits ahead of Tsunoda. It took away the Japanese driver’s chance to earn a point for VCARB.

The teams would be turning their head towards the race in Melbourne now. Albert Park is a street circuit, which may make overtaking quite a daunting task. However, the teams would be aware of the tactics that could be used by rivals and would be wary of it.

In case you missed it:

• Lewis Hamilton admits he is not ‘having fun’ after P9 result in Saudi Arabia
• Lando Norris reveals the reason for not getting penalized for jump start at Saudi Arabian GP

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