F1 News
F1 teams blocked Alpine proposal to remove penalty points Gasly
- GPblog.com
An attempt by Alpine to have a number of penalty points removed from Pierre Gasly's licence met resistance from a number of rival Formula 1 teams, team boss Otmar Szafnauer reveals.
Gasly has been in a predicament since the end of last season. Prior to the Brazilian Grand Prix, he had accumulated 10 penalty points on his licence - just two points away from a possible suspension. Since then, the penalty point system has been in disrepute.
The system was widely criticised because many minor offences, such as exceeding track limits, were already good for two penalty points. As a result, the FIA agreed to revise the system from the 2023 Formula 1 season and only hand out penalty points for more serious offences.
Alpine met resistance from other F1 teams
However, the revision does not apply retrospectively. For this reason, Szafnauer made an attempt at an F1 commission meeting to remove all current penalty points obtained from minor offences. However, the proposal did not enjoy wide support from other F1 teams.
"I was in the minority," Szafnauer explained to Autosport.com. "There were probably three or four out of the 10 teams that supported it. Some of those that did not admitted the reason they are not supporting it was for opportunistic reasons, hoping that something happens to us."