On Tuesday, June 11, 2019 at 12:55:17 PM UTC-6, WB wrote:

No they should not get a lifetime ban! But I could see a DNF for unauthorized radio use as it is blatant cheating, disrespectful to the other competitors, the organization, his sponsors and his reputation. Kawa is the best racing pilot the world has seen, not sure why he would put winning above his exhausted reputation. He has nothing to prove.

Disappointing, but not surprising. The small penalty probably reflects an unspoken acknowledgment that the practice of team communication is widespread in GP.

There are enough different ways to communicate electronically these days that it ought to be easy to do it and avoid detection. This suggests that the Polish team really did not care if they got caught.

I'm not sure I'd call this a "small penalty". This 300 seconds (5 minute) penalty, took him from 2nd place to 8th place. He would have beat Tilo by 1 second. It wouldn't have (and didn't) affect the overall outcome any, but would have made a significant difference to his standings on that final race.