F1 drivers support penalty point review as ban looms for Gasly

Several F1 drivers are pushing the FIA to conduct a review of its penalty points system that has put AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly on the brink of a one-race ban.

A list of offenses committed by drivers during a race weekend are sanctioned with penalty points on their F1 superlicence, and any driver who cumulates 12 points during a rolling 12-month period shall be handed a one-race ban.

So far, no driver has suffered that humiliation but Gasly, with 10 penalty points on his Superlicence and with no 12-month rolling deductions in sight until May of next year, will be hard-pressed to avoid the embarrassing punishment.

Gasly's transgressions out on the track include such benign offenses as exceeding track limits and falling too far behind the Safety Car, while more serious violations include speeding under red flag conditions and causing a collision.

For several drivers, depending on the circumstances, certain punishments or penalty points handed to a driver simply don't fit the crime, and that has led in Gasly's case to a surplus of points that have put him at risk of a race ban.

"The penalty doesn’t fit the crime, especially in Pierre’s case," commented GPDA director George Russell, speaking to the BBC.

The Mercedes driver says the FIA will discuss the matter during F1's winter break. But in the interim, Gasly will need to keep his nose clean as soon as this weekend in Brazil, where the slightest offense could cost him F1's season finale next week in Abu Dhabi.

"They have expressed that we will have the conversation in the off-season and review all of this," Russell continued.

"There is a lot to review this season in many different regards, so the FIA will definitely have a busy off-season.

"In sport, you have to be ready and able to adapt. You have regulations in place and it only takes one incident to recognise maybe the regulation isn’t quite right.

"We need to have the capability to change things and take penalty points away afterwards if we all agree it was incorrect."

• Read also: Gasly 'quite embarrassed" to be on verge of penalty points race ban

Russell and many of his colleagues believe that penalty points should be thrown at drivers guilty of a dangerous or reckless on-track behaviour. The Briton argues that Gasly doesn't fall into that category.

"He has some for Safety Car infringements and incidents in practice sessions," he explained. "If anything were to result in a race ban, it needs to be for something pretty reckless and dangerous.

"I personally don’t associate Pierre with being a reckless or dangerous driver."

Speaking on Thursday in Sao Paulo, Red Bull's Sergio Perez echoed Russell's views.

"I definitely feel like there are things that are not even related to his driving. And we get points for that," said the Mexican.

"So I think when it’s not related to bad driving or mistakes, there shouldn’t be a penalty and it will be really bad if he ends up losing a race for that."

Williams' Alex Albon, who has seven points written up on his F1 Superlicence also believes that certain infractions should be dropped from the FIA's points scheme.

"I think I have three points on my licence and they are down to track limits, which is something which isn’t dangerous at all,” he said.

"I’m not harming any other driver or myself in that situation.

"I think I’ve another two points for a collision with [Lance] Stroll in Jeddah, which I think at the end of the race, we, as drivers, deemed wasn’t my fault.

"So there are a lot of points on my licence which I don’t think I deserved. And I think…we are discussing it. I think there will be a change.

"Firstly, we’ve already got the points on our licence. So what happens then? Because even if we do make steps forward into next year, do the points we just got for previous races, do they stay on or whatever? So, I think we need to do something about it.

"I don’t think any of us are dangerous drivers. I do understand, of course, you should punish drivers if they do dangerous things, but I think a lot of the points everyone has right now aren’t because of dangerous things."

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