There has been a system of penalty points in Formula 1 for years, introduced as a reaction to driving deemed too dangerous by Romain Grosjean. Now, all drivers who commit violations, in addition to the actual punishment they receive at that time for the action, are also penalized a number of points, and if their total sum reaches 12 over the course of a year, the driver will be suspended and you will be forced to miss a race.
It is true that until now there have been no such cases after that sanction against Grosjean. Several drivers have been on the verge of punishment, with up to 10 points, but there has been no suspension.
However, the peculiarity of this super license system is that the accumulated points expire every year (every 12 months, not every season), so it is important to avoid a large number of infractions in a short time.
But that is exactly what happened at the end of the 2021 season with Max Verstappen.
The most undisciplined driver of the last championship ended up being Yuki Tsunoda, the Japanese AlphaTauri rookie who accumulated eight points in total for six actions. But it did so more or less evenly, avoiding serious infractions. Tsunoda’s points will start to expire in April, so you just need to do the same, avoiding serious problems, during the early stages of the 2022 academic year.
Max’s situation is completely different. He received his seven penalty points at the end of the season: two for the accident with Hamilton at Monza, two more for speeding under double yellow flags in qualifying at the Qatar Grand Prix , one for gaining an off-track advantage at Yeda and finally two more for the collision with Hamilton in the same race.
That puts Verstappen in a bind, because it means that the Dutchman will not be freed from his first penalty points until the seventeenth race of 2022. That is, he will contest the first 16 with seven points on his license and any sin, even the most innocent , it can become a major headache for him.
Penalty points can sometimes be awarded simply for incorrectly rounding a bollard on the runway, unintentionally impeding another driver during qualifying, or rejoining the track in a manner deemed dangerous by the stewards.
It is worth noting that the points that Max suffered in Losail and Jeddah will not expire until the end of the 2022 season (which will end on November 20 this year), so Verstappen will have to defend the title practically all year with 7 of 12 points. of penalty. And although for some this whole situation may seem harmless, in reality for the Dutch it can become very serious at any time.
His rival in 2021, Lewis Hamilton, only received two points in 2021 for the Silverstone accident, despite the fact that he finished the course on the verge of receiving a penalty for accumulating reprimands (he narrowly escaped in Abu Dhabi).
On the other hand, the change in trend in point penalties in 2021 was curious. Although in 2020 the four British drivers were at the top of the penalty table, in 2021 it was mainly the Red Bull drivers who caused the discontent of the commissioners. Because with Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez, as well as Yuki Tsunoda , three of the four Red Bull cars are at the top of the table followed by another former energy drink driver.
See the table of penalty points for F1 drivers for 2022
| Pilot | Points | When are points released? (day month Year) |
|---|---|---|
 |
8 | 18/04/22 |
 |
7 | 04/18/22 |
 |
7 | 12/09/22 |
 |
6 | 27/03/22 |
 |
6 | 02/05/22 |
 |
6 | 06/06/22 |
 |
5 | 05/06/22 |
 |
5 | 25/06/22 |
|
3 | 18/04/22 |
 |
3 | 05/09/22 |
|
2 | 18/07/22 |
 |
two | 10/10/22 |
|
1 | 17/07/22 |
|
1 | 09/12/22 |
