Mercedes driver George Russell who is also the director of GDPA believes that penalty points need to be rethought as AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly faces a ban threat.
Penalty points were introduced in 2014 to prevent drivers from colliding with each other, exceeding track limits or misdemeanours. The rule states that a 12 penalty point triggers a race ban.
Up until the 2022 season, no driver has reached the 12 points. Although, Gasly now has 10 penalty points which will expire at the 2023 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and therefore face the threat of a ban.
Russell, who does not consider Gasly dangerous or reckless thinks that the rules of these penalties will need to rethink in case Gasly actually does get a ban.
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George Russell – “penalty should be for something serious”
Speaking about the penalty points rule, Russell said that there have been discussions about the restructuring and he believes that FIA will definitely review the suggestion.
The Briton believes that if any driver should get penalty points it should be for something pretty damn serious and he does not think that Gasly belongs to the category of a dangerous or reckless driver.
A lot of the Frenchman’s penalty points have been because of non-dangerous activities such as exceeding track limits or falling behind the Safety Car queue.
Therefore, if Gasly gets a race ban because of the 12 points he earned from these activities, Russell thinks it would be a shame.
Otmar Szafnaer has a suggestion
Gasly’s new boss at Alpine, Otmar Szafnaeur has also made a suggestion on the matter seeing that the Frenchman is on the verge of facing a race ban.
Szafnaeur thinks that the FIA should increase the number of penalty points needed for the ban since the number of races in a season has also gone up.
Back in 2014, when the penalty point system was launched, there were only 19 races in a season and no sprint races. But now the sport is aiming for a record-breaking 24-race calendar.
The Alpine boss thinks that it is unfair for the drivers now since they have more opportunities to collect points than nine years ago.
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