F1 penalty points: Which driver has the most? Who is closest to a race ban?
At the halfway point of the 2022 F1 season, reigning champion Max Verstappen is closest to a race ban with two other drivers.
Since 2014, F1 stewards award penalties alongside penalty points that accrue on a driver’s super licence.
Should a driver obtain 12 penalty points over a 12-month period then they will be handed a race ban.
Verstappen has seven points to his name, five away from a race ban.
Here’s a full rundown of how many points each F1 driver has heading into this weekend’s French Grand Prix:
Max Verstappen - 7
Two of Verstappen’s penalty points are for his collision with Lewis Hamilton at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.
He then received two for ignoring double-waved yellow flags in Qatar last year, before picking up a further three in Saudi Arabia for two incidents with Hamilton.
All these will expire by the end of the year so Verstappen could start 2023 on zero points should he remain incident-free.
Pierre Gasly - 7
Gasly also has seven to his name but five have been accrued this year.
His first two will be removed in September, dating back to a collision with Fernando Alonso.
The Frenchman was handed two points for colliding with Lance Stroll in Spain and did the same with the second Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel in Austria.
His final one came again in Austria, this time for track limits.
Lance Stroll - 7
Stroll has seven penalty points on his licence after collisions with Nicholas Latifi (2021 Hungarian GP), Gasly (2021 Russian GP) and Latifi again (2022 Australian GP).
He also picked up a point for weaving whilst defending in Melbourne.
Fernando Alonso - 6
The two-time F1 champion got two points for colliding with Schumacher in Turkey last year.
In 2022, he got two penalty points for colliding with Gasly in Miami, one point for corner cutting and gaining an advantage, also in Miami, and one point for weaving when defending from Valtteri Bottas in Canada.
Alex Albon - 6
In just 11 races, Albon has received six penalty points.
Two for causing a collision with Stroll in Jeddah; one for exceeding track limits in Barcelona; One in Monaco and then two for forcing Lando Norris off at the Red Bull Ring.
Yuki Tsunoda - 6
Two of Tsunoda’s points will expire in November after colliding with Stroll at the 2021 Brazilian GP.
He also got two points for colliding with Vettel in Jeddah, while in 2022, he picked up another two for spinning teammate Gasly at Silverstone.
Esteban Ocon - 4
One of Ocon’s points will expire in September for colliding with Vettel at Monza.
The other three came earlier this season - a collision with Schumacher in Bahrain, and aggressive defence against Hamilton in Monaco.
Valtteri Bottas - 3
Two of Bottas’ points will be removed from his licence at the start of August - he picked them up for the multi-car collision at the start of the 2021 Hungarian GP.
Daniel Ricciardo - 2
The McLaren driver got one penalty point for impeding Ocon in Bahrain earlier this year.
The second came in Miami for ‘gaining a lasting advantage’.
Kevin Magnussen - 2
Magnussen received two points for colliding with Stroll in Miami.
Zhou Guanyu - 2
Zhou picked up one in Jeddah for going off the track and gaining an advantage.
His second came in Austria for exceeding track limits in the race.
Sergio Perez - 1
Perez’s single penalty point will expire in September.
Lando Norris - 1
Norris picked up a single penalty point for exceeding track limits in Austria.
Sebastian Vettel - 1
Like Norris, Vettel received a penalty point for track limits at the Red Bull Ring.
Nicholas Latifi - 1
Latifi picked up a penalty point for ignoring blue flags at the 2022 Azerbaijan GP.
