Mexico penalty leaves Gasly at risk of race ban

Pierre Gasly is at risk of having to sit out a grand prix should he pick up another penalty before next year’s Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The Frenchman has accumulated 10 penalty points on his Superlicence over the past 12-month period. Drivers are allowed a maximum of 12 before they are forced to sit out an event.

In last weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, Gasly was judged to have left the track and gained an advantage for which he was handed a single penalty point.

That came from an exchange with Lance Stroll on Lap 13, the Scuderia AlphaTauri maintaining the advantage after sliding wide off the track limits at Turn 4.

Gasly had stronger pace than his Aston Martin rival at the time, opening 0.9s in the half a lap following the pass and 2.6s by the time Stroll pitted on Lap 17.

The 2020 Italian Grand Prix winner picked up a five-second time penalty for the incident, which was served at his stop on Lap 40.

He rejoined in 16th, two places ahead of Stroll, before racing his way forward to 11th.

At the chequered flag, he was 0.6s behind Valtteri Bottas and 4.010s back from Lando Norris in ninth.

“I don’t want one single question about the penalty because I’m tired of this,” Gasly said.

“I’m a racing driver. If I see a gap, I go for a gap. If you’re not happy about it just tell me to give the position back.”

The Scuderia AlphaTauri driver admitted he considered ceding the place but decided against it, anticipating a call from Race Control if that was indeed the expectation.

“That’s what they have done in the past. Some reason, not this time,” he observed.

“We came four seconds short from P9 so, without the penalty, we know what was on the table,” he added.

“But just the same story last weekend [at the United States Grand Prix] – we came P11 with the penalty [though fell to 14th after that was judged to have not been served correctly].

“I’ll have to change my approach because every weekend it seems to be quite the same story, so I’ll have to change something.”

Gasly added that he intends to speak with the Stewards to gain a better idea of where he’s going wrong in an effort to cover off the risk of being benched should he cop their wrath again.

“At the moment they are not happy with what I’m doing, so I’ll have a discussion with them to understand exactly what I’ve got to change.”

Gasly is not set to drop any penalty points until after Round 7 of the 2023 season, with half of those he has accrued accumulated in the last three races.

Two races remain in the current season, the next at Interlagos for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on November 11-13, and the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix a week later.

Gasly’s Superlicence penalty points