All Formula 1 drivers’ penalty points

Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz are the only drivers on the Formula 1 grid to not have accumulated any points on their Superlicences.

Following a penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage at last weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly is precariously close to sitting out an event.

The Frenchman has chalked up 10 points on his licence in the last six months. Drivers are allowed to accumulate a maximum of 12 points over a rolling 12-month period before facing a one-race ban.

Gasly’s Scuderia AlphaTauri team-mate, Yuki Tsunoda, is also close to ban having racked up nine points, though two of those will fall away on November 14.

The Japanese driver simply needs to get through the Sao Paulo Grand Prix without major incident and he should be in the clear, especially if he does the same in Abu Dhabi as another two points fall away on December 5.

That means he’ll go into the 2023 season with just five points accumulated, the most recent of those having come at the Italian Grand Prix when he failed to slow for yellow flags during practice.

The current Superlicence system was introduced in 2014, a season that featured just 19 races.

This year’s championship has already taken in 20 events, with two more still to come, while next year the calendar expands to 24 races.

Essentially that equates to a 25 percent increase in the number of races, while the allowed penalty points has remained static.

There are no plans to increase the number of penalty points in line with the expanded calendar, meaning drivers will have to exercise more caution in 2023 than ever before.

While it has been rare that a driver has been forced to sit out an event in the sport’s history, since 2014 it is mandatory if they exceed the penalty points on their Superlicence.

Officially, Nigel Mansell was the first driver to be banned from a race after he reversed in the pit lane at the 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix, and ignored the subsequent black flag.

Eddie Irvine was the second five years later after triggering a multi-car crash at the 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix. A one-race holiday became three when Jordan appealed.

Mika Hakkinen picked up a suspended one-race suspension at the 1994 British Grand Prix, an opening corner crash at the following event in Germany saw the Finn rubbed out for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Also in 1994, Mick Schumacher was pinged during the British Grand Prix for passing pole-sitter Damon Hill, a messy saga that resulted in the German being sidelined from the Italian and Portuguese Grands Prix.

Technically, Jacques Villeneuve was banned from the 1997 Japanese Grand Prix, having triggered a suspended ban due to an offence under yellow flags, but raced under appeal, finishing fifth.

The appeal was then withdrawn post-race, meaning the Canadian was excluded from the results, leaving him the only driver to have competed in a race he was technically suspended from.

The last driver to have sat out an event due to their behaviour on track was Romain Grosjean, who was given a one-race ban for triggering an opening corner crash at the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix.

Current Formula 1 Superlicence penalty points

All incidents resulting in (active) Superlicence penalty points