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Jolyon Palmer believes the FIA are clamping down on damaged cars on track more, citing the example of Lewis Hamilton at the 2021 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.

Magnussen picked up some front wing damage while battling Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap in Montreal, with his right-side endplate flapping about following the contact between the two cars.

Esteban Ocon, following behind in his Alpine, radioed in to his engineer to complain about the danger of the endplate falling off and hitting him, with the black and orange flag being shown to Magnussen shortly after. This flag is an instruction from Race Control to come in and repair the damage.

Magnussen did so on Lap 7, falling to the very back of the field as a result of the timing of the forced stop. His afternoon was ruined from there, with the Danish driver coming home in 17th place at the chequered flag.

Magnussen was particularly annoyed by the enforced stop, feeling that the damage had in no way been dangerous or compromising to his own pace.

Palmer, analysing the race for F1TV, said Magnussen’s damage was no worse than what Lewis Hamilton picked up after striking the back of Max Verstappen‘s Red Bull in Jeddah last season – a race that Hamilton won and was crucial to keep the title fight alive.

“The big one that we saw, just about 10 races ago now, was when Hamilton hit the back of Verstappen in Jedda,” he said.

“Now Lewis didn’t have to pit and didn’t get a black and orange flag for damage that looked pretty similar to Magnussen in the Haas this year.

“The damage was very similar,