Was Magnussen's role as Hulkenberg's helper in Saudi Arabian GP unsportsmanlike?
OPINION: Kevin Magnussen played the ultimate team game in the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as he held back the chasing pack by whatever means necessary to allow his Haas team-mate Nico Hulkenberg to pit and the opportunity to score a world championship point. But was the strategy beyond the line of acceptability?
Jake Boxall-Legge
Edited:
It was a defence for the ages. Burdened by a brace of 10-second penalties for prior misdemeanours, Kevin Magnussen's race had been undone by his own wavering hand, and whatever he could muster afterwards would be weighed down considerably. But to the Haas pitwall, the Dane was still of great value to its efforts in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
His team-mate Nico Hulkenberg had been in the ascendancy, having been unable to qualify any higher than 15th owing to a fuel pump issue during Q2, moments after Haas had coordinated a Talladega Nights-style slingshot between the two for a DRS benefit. Lance Stroll's lap six shunt had triggered the safety car, and three-quarters of the field elected to conduct their sole stops behind it, a little earlier than originally planned. Hulkenberg, however, stayed out. He'd moved up to eighth in the pecking order and was equipped with the medium tyre, giving him something to fight for position with against the hard-tyre runners around him.
Hulkenberg couldn't do too much about George Russell from making his way past, but gave rookie driver Oliver Bearman a run for his money for a few laps. But, knowing that the Briton would get past eventually, Hulkenberg focused on maintaining a consistent race pace to stretch his stint on the medium tyres, aiming to open a window to pit later on. Low 1m35s laps progressively dropped into the 1m34s boundary as the mediums continued to deliver performance. Hold that thought: a Haas, holding onto its tyres?
But it would all be for nothing if that pit window couldn't be created. That's where Magnussen came in, as he was tasked with being the stopper in the bottle. Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon, and Logan Sargeant were all queuing up behind the Haas driver, hoping to break past and start eroding at Hulkenberg's advantage. Except, none of them could quite manage it; Magnussen took his foot off the gas in the tighter parts of the circuit and dumped his battery power in the DRS zones to garner enough momentum to defend.
Tsunoda got closest. Already aggrieved at having been passed by Magnussen off-track, which was responsible for one of the 10-second penalties, the Japanese driver threw the kitchen sink at the car in front. The 29th lap offered the best opportunity, where Tsunoda got alongside on the run into Turn 1 and scythed his way past. But, instead of taking the racing line to cover off Magnussen that way, he defended fresh air on the inside line. Magnussen thus kept the momentum around the outside, and threaded the eye of the needle down the inside of the next corner, just about keeping a wheel on the correct side of the kerb. This let Ocon slip past in the meantime, the slower Alpine less able to keep in touch with the car ahead.
Hulkenberg stopped four laps later once a 20-second-plus gap to Magnussen had emerged. This kept the German ahead, and simply needed to wait for fellow non-safety-car-stopper Zhou Guanyu to make his own (ultimately lengthy) stop later. Magnussen continued to hold up the pack behind him to ensure Hulkenberg could get away, before upping the ante and dropping the pack that had formed behind.
"We figured if he can create enough gap, and then Zhou behind hasn't stopped, that's the only chance we had," Haas principal Ayao Komatsu reflected afterwards. "And honestly, Kevin did an amazing job. Amazing. We told him [to do laps] like around 1m36s. And he was doing 36.2, 36.2, 36.2, at one stage. [When Tsunoda got ahead] I thought okay, that's gone... then Kevin just sent it on the outside in Turn 1!
Magnussen put up an aggressive defence to hold back Tsunoda
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
"That's the widest Haas F1 car you've seen for a long time. We had to do it, at least at this circuit, it's crazy: like sector one, you can't really overtake. So, it's just Kevin's done fantastic job doing that lap time, not getting overtaken."
Further gratitude came from Hulkenberg, who promised that "I'll return the favour later in the season", as Haas chalked up its first point of the season - his own points finish for the first time since Austria's sprint race last year.
For a team that expected to start the season as the slowest team, Haas has surprised in becoming the first outfit among the bottom five to claim a point in 2024. Alpine's decline with its overweight A524 has opened the gap between the top half of the field and the bottom, much to the chagrin of those who hoped that the stable regulations would help with overall convergence.
"I think any team would do the same thing, if you sacrifice one driver for guaranteed points" Alan Permane
It's evident that the American squad has made great strides with the tyre management concerns that plagued its race performances last season. There's little chance that Hulkenberg might have managed that stint on older mediums with the old car, and Bahrain showed that the team has been able to retain some of its strong pace in qualifying - even if that was not entirely underlined in Jeddah.
However, Magnussen's earlier pass on Tsunoda - one that was declared illegal - arguably made Haas's endeavour possible. It was the fly in the ointment for most; although Alex Albon declared that "Haas did a great job with strategy, using Kevin to hold up the group, which was very smart", he was less enamoured with the idea that drivers could conduct a pass outside of the regulations and use it to benefit the other car. He warned that, with points looking scarce among the bottom five teams, other teams could employ a similar strategy.
“[It] was a bit cheeky, the 10-seconds penalty with Yuki. I mean, you basically guarantee your team-mate points for a 10-second penalty,” the Anglo-Thai driver mused afterwards. “Why wouldn't you do that everywhere? I don't think five to 10-seconds is correct. I think it needs to be you must return the position back, and just leave it like that.
“I think any team would do the same thing, if you sacrifice one driver for guaranteed points. Maybe the top teams won't do it. But the midfield teams who need to take points at any opportunity, you would do it every single time. I think you might see more drivers doing it just to guarantee a team-mate to have points."
Permane believes Magnussen's actions went beyond the level of acceptability
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
RB sporting director Alan Permane held an altogether dimmer view of the incident, suggesting that it was a deliberate move by Magnussen to benefit Hulkenberg in the long run.
“Magnussen drove off the track to deliberately put himself in front of Yuki and then slowed him down by up to two seconds a lap, which allowed Hulkenberg, who hadn’t stopped yet, to create a gap and of course pit in front of all the cars behind," Permane said.
“That, to me, doesn’t seem correct, and is the very definition of unsportsmanlike behaviour. I’m sure we and other teams will talk to the FIA about it for future races.”
It's not quite as premeditated as Permane suggests, and Komatsu later admitted that the team should have been more persistent in asking Magnussen to give the place back. And he should, although the 10-second penalty - now upped from five - makes it harder for drivers to take the hit and use the free air ahead to build a gap to the driver behind. Magnussen's race in Saudi Arabia suggests that this could now change to benefit the other car, which is a legitimate grievance.
But it's rare that the circumstances will align just like that. Haas took an opportunity that was presented to it, and it should be commended for it, but it's certainly a circumstance that the FIA would likely take a stronger stance on in the future. The way that it played out in Jeddah probably doesn't fall into the "unsportsmanlike" category, but a more cynical version of those events - a driver deliberately self-immolating their own race to help a team-mate pick up a point or two - might just do so.
Will, or indeed should, other teams follow this example across the season?
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
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