A total of 12 penalty points accrued on a driver's FIA super-license over the course of a year will result in a one-race suspension.
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McLaren is calling for a reform of F1’s penalty points system, citing concerns that Lando Norris may have been banned despite the fact that there is no evidence he drove dangerously. A total of 12 penalty points accrued on a driver’s FIA super-license over the course of a year will result in a one-race suspension, albeit this punishment has yet to be imposed since the system was implemented in 2014. However, it is possible that it will happen in 2022, as certain drivers are close to crossing the line. Yuki Tsunoda and Sergio Perez have eight and seven points, respectively, and must avoid achieving 12 points in the first three races of next season to prevent having some of their points wiped away before the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
From Red Bull’s perspective, Max Verstappen’s situation is more critical since he will carry seven points through to the Italian Grand Prix in September, giving him 15 races to negotiate before his penalty total begins to decline. Norris, on the other hand, has less concerns with five points – none of which will be removed until June in Azerbaijan – but McLaren is upset with how the British driver was treated by the stewards last year.
They highlighted the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix as an example, where the stewards were extremely aggressive and Norris received two penalty points for a confrontation with Perez – which even Perez’s Red Bull chief Christian Horner thought was unfair. Last season, Norris was one incident away from a suspension, according to McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who described the scenario as “crazy.”
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Brown believes that the FIA would perform a review of the penalty points system in conjunction with their inquiry into the unsatisfactory events that unfolded at the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, so that drivers are not forced to walk a tightrope if they do not deserve to.
“I can’t remember any incident where Lando drove dangerously,” Brown told Motorsport-total.com. “We wrote to the FIA and Formula One with seven races to go and said Lando pushing Perez off the track without touching him is one race away from losing his license. I think the points should be about dangerous driving, not racing incidents. So I’m more interested in getting things like this resolved because we were concerned about Lando. I understand, of course, everyone is focused on Abu Dhabi but I look at the last two years. And there’s a lot to clean up.”
