Kevin Magnussen has amassed 10 penalty points in the last 12 months, putting him on the verge of a race ban. The threat will be hanging over his head until March 2025.
Magnussen was already on six coming into the season and then he earned two more for causing a collision with Alex Albon at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He would hit double figures as punishment for taking out Logan Sargeant in Miami last month.
As such, the Dane would have been nervously holding his breath after a dramatic shunt at the start of the race in Monaco. He kept his nose in on the outside of Sergio Perez on the climb up Beau Rivage, and when the Red Bull driver came across, they touched.
The ensuing crash took both of them out of the race, alongside bystander Nico Hulkenberg. F1 pundit David Coulthard suspects Magnussen could have been looking at a suspension had it not been the first lap, with the stewards exercising a more lenient approach.
After getting involved in a string of incidents, the Haas driver has damaged his reputation. He apparently has ‘little chance’ of featuring on the F1 grid in 2025.
Sergio Perez tops crash damage table at £2.3m
RacingNews365 have calculated the cumulative crash damage from each driver, and found that it’s not Magnussen, but Perez who tops the undesirable ‘championship’.
Much of Perez’s £2.3m repair bill will of course stem from that accident in Monaco. But he also broke the rear wing on his RB20 with a race-ending mistake at the Canadian Grand Prix last time out.
Magnussen ranks only seventh on the leaderboard, with Albon second (£1.9m). The Thai driver notably broke his chassis in practice for the Australian Grand Prix in March, which led to him racing in Sargeant’s car instead.
At the following race in Japan, he ended up in barriers on the first lap after tangling with Daniel Ricciardo. The stewards ruled that this was a racing incident.
Zhou Guanyu, who hit the wall twice in his Sauber in Canada, is third on £1.2m, with Ricciardo fourth (£1m) and Sargeant fifth (£970k). Lance Stroll is a fraction behind in sixth, while Esteban Ocon (£800k) comes in after Magnussen following his incident with teammate Pierre Gasly in Monaco.
Mercedes driver George Russell is ninth (£700k) after crashing out of the Australian GP in his pursuit of Fernando Alonso. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc then completes the top 10 (£485k).
Guenther Steiner reveals Haas talks with Perez
The Red Bull mechanics have been working overtime on Perez’s car lately. While few would argue the Monaco crash was his fault – aside from F1 expert Peter Windsor, perhaps – this has only compounded his miserable run of form.
Since finishing fourth in Miami, Perez has scored just four points in three races. He’s recorded more DNFs (two) than he has appearances in Q2 (one).
Despite that, Red Bull have taken the early decision to hand him a new contract for the 2025 season. Perez will make up for the damage costs with huge sponsorship deals, and he’ll also keep teammate Max Verstappen happy.
Former Haas boss Guenther Steiner wonders if there’s a clause in Verstappen’s contract typing Verstappen’s future to that of Perez. He also revealed that he tried to persuade the Mexican to join his team on more than one occasion, to no avail.
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