Pierre Gasly continues to call upon the FIA to change the penalty points system in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, with the Frenchman insisting he is not a dangerous driver and should not be anywhere near a race ban.
Gasly, who will switch from Scuderia AlphaTauri to the BWT Alpine F1 Team for the 2023 season, currently has ten penalty points on his Superlicence, meaning he is only two away from becoming the first driver since the points system was put in place to earn a race ban.
Only half of those points were for on-track clashes, with three points earned for two incidents with Lance Stroll, and the other two for another clash with Sebastian Vettel. Penalty points were also awarded for driving too fast under red flag conditions in Japan, failing to stay within ten car lengths of the car in front behind the safety car in the United States, and for track limit offences in Austria.
He is not the only driver to be accumulating points, with Stroll on eight, Alexander Albon on seven and Fernando Alonso on six, but unlike Gasly, those three drivers will lose points early on in 2023. Gasly will need to get through at least the first six races to see any of his penalty points disappear.
“I try not to think because I see myself as not as a silly driver or dangerous driver,” Gasly is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “I try to be careful with all the, let’s say, silly penalty points you could lose with procedures and stuff like that.
“So I try to be on top of that. I think my approach to racing has been the same. And I really hope we can have a review on the whole system over winter, because I do believe I’m not going to be the only one in trouble if we keep it that way.
“And it will be a shame to see four or five racing drivers banned for a race and having a championship with some guys missing out on a race.”
Gasly says the increase in the number of races in a season will make it easier for drivers to rack up penalty points, but he is sure the FIA will find a solution to make the system fairer for everyone.
“We talk about it all the time,” Gasly said. “And some guys are only four points away with 24 races and six sprints, so 30 races a year, and when it was introduced, we had only 19 or 20 races. So clearly it will make sense to get more points on this licence.
“But I believe that the FIA will look into this and find solutions to make it more fair for everyone.”
