Chapter 3 of 5 · 1 min read
Penalty Points & Bans
Beyond in-race penalties, drivers carry penalty points on their superlicence. The stewards add points for incidents they judge a driver responsible for, and those points stick around far longer than a single race.
The number added scales with how serious the incident was — typically one to three points for the kind of offences seen most often, such as causing a collision. They are handed out *in addition* to any in-race penalty, so a single mistake can cost a driver time on Sunday and edge them closer to a ban at the same time.
A ban is a serious thing: the driver sits out the next race entirely and the team must call up a reserve to take the seat, costing the regular driver a guaranteed zero for that round in the championship. The tally is public, so everyone can see who is close to the edge, and a driver sitting on ten points spends the next races acutely aware that one more incident puts them on the sidelines — a quiet but real pressure across a long season.
Key takeaways
- Penalty points are added to a driver’s licence for incidents they cause.
- Each incident adds roughly one to three points, on top of any race penalty.
- Twelve points in twelve months triggers an automatic one-race ban.
- A ban means a reserve driver takes the seat for that round.
- Points expire a year after they are issued, so the window keeps rolling.