Max Verstappen is no longer within three penalty points of an F1 race ban after three were wiped from his record at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Dutchman’s cumulative 12-month tally now stands at just six, while rival Oliver Bearman has also been afforded some breathing room heading into the final four rounds of the campaign.
Both Verstappen and Bearman navigated clean Mexican Grand Prix weekends, finishing third and fourth respectively as the Haas driver recorded his career-best result and narrowly missed out on a podium finish.
After the race, both drivers received some positive news, as the FIA removed points from their super licences in accordance with the sporting regulations. Verstappen was hit with two penalty points for pushing Lando Norris wide in Mexico last season and another for a virtual safety car infringement in Brazil. These have now been removed from his record.
Bearman, meanwhile, has been within two penalty points of a race ban since colliding with Carlos Sainz at the Italian Grand Prix, but his total has now been reduced to eight, after the FIA removed two points for a clash with Franco Colapinto in Brazil last year.
The British prodigy even picked up a 10-second time penalty for a track limit violation during his battle with former Prema Racing team-mate Kimi Antonelli in Austin, but this, fortunately, did not come with any points on his FIA super license.
Verstappen and Bearman aren’t the only drivers with changes to their penalty point totals this weekend. World Championship contender Oscar Piastri had two points removed from his license after clashing with Liam Lawson at last year’s race in Sao Paulo.
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The extra breathing room will please Verstappen and Piastri as they head into the final stages of a tense title fight. The duo are both chasing Norris, who moved one point clear at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings with a commanding win in Mexico City last weekend.
Piastri is under the most pressure of the three World Championship contenders. The Australian has failed to outscore both of his title rivals in the past five rounds, forfeiting a 34-point advantage at an alarming rate.
Verstappen, meanwhile, knows that nothing but perfection will do to land a fifth successive crown. “It’s a big gap,” he confessed. “As I said, I need to have perfect weekends, and we didn’t have that this weekend. That makes the task even more difficult. But from now on, we just have to win everything. If we don’t, it’s simply not going to happen.”
