Will Kevin Magnussen face a race ban for his collision with Sergio Perez at the Monaco GP? All you need to know

Kevin Magnussen had a massive crash with Sergio Perez at the start of the 2024 F1 Monaco GP. However, the FIA declared the crash a racing incident, a decision that saved the Haas driver from a race ban.

Perez started the race from P16 due to poor qualifying, while both Haas drivers were at the back of the grid due to technically non-compliant rear wings. Soon after the race started, both Magnussen and Hulkenberg jumped a few backmarker cars and made their way up to Perez. Hulkenberg was on Checo's left, while Magnussen was on his right after the first turn.

The Danish driver found a small opening on the left and tried to overtake Perez. Since the gap was too tight for the car, the Haas' left front tire collided with Checo's car, causing both drivers to lose control. Sergio Perez's car then collided with Hulkenberg as well. The Red Bull was in complete shambles as it bumped around the barriers and with both Haas cars.

The race was red-flagged and the marshals hurriedly arrived at the scene to clean the track and pick the cars. A few minutes later, the FIA noted the incident and decided to categorize it as a racing incident rather than penalizing any driver.

This saves Kevin Magnussen from a potential race ban since he already has 10 penalty points on his super license within a year. As per regulations, any driver who collects 12 penalty points within a year gets banned from a Grand Prix.

Kevin Magnussen has been driving too aggressively in the past few races in 2024 as a tactic to defend against other cars so that his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, secures a position in the points. In the Miami GP, he picked up several time penalties which converted into 5 penalty points.

Since the incident at the Monaco GP was declared a racing incident, Magnussen was not penalized and has not collected any penalty points as of yet. However, the Haas driver needs to save himself from getting two penalty points till March 2025 to reset the penalty points on his super license.

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Kevin Magnussen not keeping the threat of a race ban in his focus

Kevin Magnussen recently talked about him being perilously close to a race ban in the 2024 F1 season. In an interview with Autosport after the Imola GP, he stated that he was not too focused on the threat of a race ban since that would prevent him from pushing in races.

“I didn’t think about it. I have to still keep pushing otherwise I spend the next 20 races cruising around. I’m not gonna do that. It doesn’t make sense either,” Magnussen said.

Kevin Magnussen is currently 16th in the 2024 F1 drivers' championship with only one point in his pocket. Meanwhile, his teammate Nico Hulkenberg is 13th with six points.