F1 penalty points should 'probably go up to 14 or 15' per season, fees Alpine team principal

Alpine team principal feels there's an argument to be had over increasing the threshold penalty points to 14 or 15 because of the increased number of races in a season.

Currently, according to the penalty points system, if a driver accrues more than 12 points in a 12-month period, he faces a race ban. Up until now, as the penalty points system has been introduced, there hasn't been a single driver who has been banned from a race.

The situation in Alpine, though, is precarious, as the newly signed Fernando Alonso replacement Pierre Gasly has ten penalty points to his name and is on the verge of a race ban if he gets penalised again.

Talking to RacingNews365.com, among other media, Alpine boss Otmar Sazafneur suggested that there's a case to be made for increasing the penalty points threshold, as the number of races per season has seen a drastic increase. He said:

"We can maybe lobby the FIA to see if it can be changed. I get the logic for wanting to change, as the 12 points was brought in when we had (fewer) races, including no Sprint races where you can get those type of points. If you take the 12 points and make it proportional to the amount of races we have now, 12 would probably go up to 14 or 15. It seems to me to be a logical thing to do."

He added:

"Yeah I've got 12 points, but I got them over 22 races and three Sprint races – when the points were set we only had 18 or 20 races. There is a certain logic to say: 'We don't want you to lose your licence because you've accumulated these over a time period but in more races'. Otherwise, I think he'll have to drive a bit more cautiously for a while, and that's not great either."

---

Alpine driver addresses penalty points issue

Pierre Gasly also addressed the penalty points issue during the season where he said that there was some discussion with the FIA to try and find a solution. He said:

“There’s been a lot of discussion with the FIA, trying to find a solution, because personally I want to do all the races, I want to finish the season in the best way I can with AlphaTauri. I want to do all the races in 2023 and get the maximum chances to perform for Alpine, and obviously there’s a lot at stake because no one knows what’s going to happen in 2023."

He added:

"I could end up with an amazing car fighting for the championship, for example, and can’t take the risk to be banned for a race and lose all my hopes for the championship,”

The Alpine driver will hope to keep things clean early in the season as he tries not to become the first driver to face a race ban because of exceeding the penalty points threshold.