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Kevin Magnussen has become the first ever Formula 1 driver to rack up 12 penalty points, triggering an automatic race ban for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
His former Haas team-mate Romain Grosjean picked up a race ban back in the middle of a string of incidents in 2012, but this was before the introduction of F1's new penalty points system.
Under the current system accumulate 12 penalty points over a period of one year and you'll receive a race ban.
Magnussen is the first driver to do so, the last two points coming for causing a collision with Pierre Gasly at the Italian Grand Prix today alongside a 10-second time penalty. Despite that penalty Magnussen still edged Fernando Alonso by 0.1s to grab 10th after his penalty was applied.
Hitting the 12-point tally automatically means he'll be barred from the Azerbaijan GP, which the FIA officially confirmed in the hours after the Italian race finished.
That should mean Ferrari junior and 2025 Haas driver Ollie Bearman gets an early debut for the team.
That's if Bearman forgoes his F2 weekend as he did when he made his starring F1 debut at Jeddah for Ferrari.
Haas also has Pietro Fittipaldi as a reserve, but he is committed to the IndyCar season finale at Nashville with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing on the Baku weekend.
Several drivers in Formula 2 have received race bans for picking up 12 penalty points but a driver hadn't been banned under the system in F1 before Magnussen even if the likes of Gasly have previously got close.
That led to a review of the system and the promise that they'd be used more for driver errors versus procedural errors.
'See you later'
"Frustrated about the penalty, I don’t understand it at all. Flat out, just completely confused," was Magnussen's reaction on Sunday at Monza.
"Me and Gasly raced hard into Turn 4, we had slight contact, we both missed the corner, came back on track again no damage to either car, no consequence to the race of either of us, and I get a 10-second penalty.
"Then on lap one [Daniel] Ricciardo and Nico [Hulkenberg], Ricciardo put Nico in the grass at 300km/h, completely destroyed Nico’s race, massive consequence and damage to Nico’s car, and he gets a five second penalty.
"Where’s the logic? I just don’t get it."
When told by the media that he'd be banned for Baku and asked if there was anything he can do off the back of this, Magnussen said "come back in Singapore. I have zero [penalty] points.
"I only know that I have the two points from you. I haven’t heard it officially. I said all the time, I’m not going to hold back, it doesn’t make sense.
"I scored a point today, so see you later."
Gasly expressed sympathy for Magnussen.
"I'm a bit surprised because he tried, there was a bit of wheel-to-wheel and in the end I really didn't lose any time,” he said.
The Alpine driver added that he didn’t want to see Magnussen banned.
"I hope somehow they can revert on that,” said Gasly. “That would definitely be unfair."
How Magnussen picked up a ban
Magnussen opened his 2024 penalty points account with three penalty points for causing a collision with the Williams of Alex Albon in Jeddah.
He picked up two more for a collision with Yuki Tsunoda at Shanghai and added another three in the Miami sprint race when he left the track without a justifiable reason multiple times while fighting Lewis Hamilton.
As in Jeddah, Magnussen and Haas were employing slowing tactics to block rivals and help team-mate Hulkenberg score points.
Magnussen picked up another two points in the Miami GP for punting Logan Sargeant out of the race, taking his total to 10 points.
The two points for his collision with Gasly at the second chicane at Monza heightens his total to 12.
