F1 penalty points: How they work and why they're needed even though drivers have doubts

New York Times

8 hours ago

Between the Racing Lines | Formula One is complicated, confusing and constantly evolving. This story is part of our guide to help any fan — regardless of how long they've watched the sport or how they discovered it — navigate the pinnacle of motorsports.
'I don't like how we're racing at the moment,' Williams' Alex Albon said ahead of the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix weekend.
His comment, part of a longer answer, was not in regards to how his team was performing as Formula One neared the halfway mark of the 2025 season, but rather about the racing guidelines documents shared publicly by the FIA for the first time ever ahead of the race weekend.
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The purpose of F1's penalty and driving standard guidelines is to help stewards 'with fair and consistent decision making,' and the latter document is a set of rules about how the drivers can go wheel-to-wheel racing. The publication of these comes at a time when the FIA faces calls for more transparency and questions about the current officiating system.
The specific penalty point system, in particular, has come under fire in recent years, with drivers arguing it needs to be changed. Infringements beyond just dangerous driving can result in penalty points, and they can add up quickly, putting some drivers in the past on the brink of a race ban, which Max Verstappen reached at the 2025 Spanish GP.
'I think it's a little bit harsh to see drivers getting race bans for trying to create action,' Haas' Ollie Bearman said.
Penalty points are just one of the numerous punishments that the stewards can hand to the drivers for various infractions, ranging from some safety car and virtual safety car infringements to causing a collision with another driver.
The system was introduced at the start of the 2014 season and a limit does exist. Once drivers reach 12 points in any 12-month span, they receive an automatic one-race ban. The slate is wiped clean after the ban is served, or if they avoid a race ban, penalty points will start dropping off a driver's super license once the 12-month mark of each infringement passes.
For example, heading into the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix weekend (June 27-29), Verstappen had 11 penalty points. But two points were set to drop off his license on June 30th, a year since he received two penalty points for causing a collision with Lando Norris at Red Bull Ring. The most recent case of a driver receiving a one-race ban for accumulating too many penalty points within the 12-month stretch was Kevin Magnussen, who was sidelined during the 2024 Azerbaijan GP.
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'You get punished, and then you come back, and you're all ready to… f— s— up now!' Magnussen joked when he returned to the paddock during last year's Singapore GP weekend. 'It's funny how that works.'
Penalties as a whole are left up to the discretion of the stewards, a rotating panel of volunteers from the motorsport world. Ahead of the 2025 Austrian GP weekend, the FIA made two documents public that are there to help stewards 'with fair and consistent decision making': the 2025 F1 Penalty Guidelines and the 2025 Driving Standard Guidelines. It was released ahead of the next FIA presidential election in December.
The penalty guidelines document alone covers around 100 common infringements, as well as what penalties and penalty points should be given out depending on the situation occurring in practice, qualifying and the grand prix.
A caveat to highlight is that some of the penalty points listed in the guidelines are 'the Maximum Number of Penalty Points depending upon the severity of the infringement,' and it is ultimately up to the stewards' discretion how many might actually be dished out. For instance, a driver can receive a maximum of three penalty points for 'causing a collision with no immediate and obvious sporting consequence' during practice, qualifying or the grand prix, but they could get less depending on exactly what happens in each incident.
But when an incident results in a fine or a reprimand, penalty points cannot be given.
'The points indicated are intended to be the norm for a particular offence. The Stewards may vary these, taking into account mitigating or aggravating circumstances,' the FIA noted at the bottom of the guidelines document. 'However, the authority of the Stewards to increase the points assessed is intended to be used only in exceptional circumstances.'
With the way the current penalty point system is set up, in certain circumstances a driver can end up on the brink of a race ban without making a particularly dangerous maneuver.
'We saw Kevin (Magnussen) last year get a race ban. Although it obviously helped me, I felt like he was really hard done by to have that race ban from all of these tiny infractions,' said Bearman, who filled the seat at Haas when Magnussen had his race ban. 'At the end, he tries an overtake, and it doesn't work. They both cut the corner. It's no harm, no foul. Everyone keeps going, no dangerous maneuvers, no damage, and two penalty points.
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'Those add up quickly, so it's a shame.'
It's a tricky balance to strike because, as Bearman noted, 'drivers need to be punished in some way to stop them from doing some things.' But is the current penalty system going too far with the types of infractions that can result in penalty points being added to super licenses? There is a difference between making a mistake and dangerous driving, the latter of which is only when Fernando Alonso feels penalty points should be used as a sanction.
He gave a few different scenarios that he considers driving mistakes, such as crossing the white line at the exit of a pit lane. The Aston Martin driver said mistakes should result in five-second or drive-through penalties only.
'When you are pushing someone into the grass in the middle of the straight, or when you are doing different things, that should be a penalty point, because it's a dangerous driving,' said Alonso.
Both Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly of Alpine stressed during the Austrian GP FIA news conference that they don't like penalty points, with the Racing Bulls driver going as far as to say, 'I think it's very clean field. It's not very needed.'
And it's unlikely that the drivers will change their approach to racing, a question Verstappen faced after reaching the brink of a ban.
'You're joking? Is this like a trap?' the Red Bull driver said in Austria, having faced similar questions at the previous race in Canada. 'I'm getting this question every single time, every weekend.'
Motorsport will always be inherently dangerous, as drivers race at fast speeds and make daring moves en route to fighting for points, podiums and wins. It's clear where the limit is, but mistakes do happen. But should penalty points apply for those moments or only when a truly dangerous move does occur? It's clear what the drivers think, but deterrents such as this have become necessary as rows over stewarding decisions became ever more common place in the modern era.
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'I think the level we have in Formula One – we are professional in what we do,' Gasly said. 'We obviously push things to the limits, but to have a race ban potentially… I was (once) in that situation, and I don't think I was a dangerous driver on track. So, for me, it's something that can be reviewed. Maybe there's another way of applying some sort of penalty without getting into the risk of having a driver missing a race.'
Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; David Ramos, Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images