Pierre Gasly has successfully made it to this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix without receiving a race ban, with the Frenchman having completed the opening five races this season without receiving any penalty points.
Gasly entered the 2023 campaign on 10 penalty points, with 12 being the required amount before a race ban is awarded.
A race ban is awarded by the FIA if a driver receives 12 penalty points within 12 months, with each point being valid for a year.
With that in mind, Gasly’s total penalty points has dropped to eight ahead of this weekend at the Circuit de Monaco, with it having been 12 months since he was awarded two penalty points for colliding with Lance Stroll at last year’s Spanish Grand Prix.
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This will likely come as a relief to Gasly, who called for some of his points to be removed before the season began.
The penalty points system faced substantial criticism ahead of this season and during last year, with several drivers having faced punishment for simply exceeding track limits.
Ahead of this year, it was confirmed that the stewards would only award points for incidents which truly deserved it, with exceeding track limits instead being dealt with during a race, commonly through a time penalty.
Carlos Sainz is the only driver to have received any penalty points this season, following his incident with Fernando Alonso on the penultimate lap of the Australian Grand Prix.
Given that he continues to behave, Gasly’s penalty points total will drop to five on July 10, when his three points from last season’s Austrian Grand Prix will be removed from his licence.
Despite having his super licence now read eight penalty points instead of 10, Gasly still has more than any other driver, with Alex Albon and Lance Stroll sitting in joint-second on five points each.
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Interestingly, six drivers currently sit on zero penalty points, including, rookies Logan Sargeant and Nyck de Vries.
The reason why this is interesting is because both have caused collisions with season yet have escaped without being awarded any penalty points.
Sargeant hit De Vries at the Australian Grand Prix whilst De Vries collided with Lando Norris in Miami, two incidents which would’ve likely resulted in penalty points had they occurred last season.