Sergio Perez is on thin ice. After the Saudi Arabia race, the Mexican is just a few points away from a race ban. As an F1 driver, you accumulate penalty points throughout the year for when you have broken the rules once. After Perez's five-second penalty, a point has been added to his tally.
That means the Mexican is now on eight points. As a driver, you are allowed to have a maximum of twelve in a year. If you get twelve, you have to sit on the sidelines for one race. Because Perez thus made a mistake in the pit lane, those twelve points do come awfully close. The situation in the pit lane was a dubious one anyway. Perez was not allowed by his pit-crew to drive away yet, but seeing no one in his mirrors, he simply drove away. So Checo admitted after the race. Now he has to put on the penitentiary cloth and thus bring in less than four penalty points over the next fifteen races. Fifteen races is still a long time, but that is because the points remain for a year.
Below is a brief overview of all the points Perez has brought in and why.
How many points | Where | Why |
1 | Singapore 2023 | Collision with Albon |
2 | Japan 2023 | Overtaking Alonso during Safety Car |
2 | Japan 2023 | Collision with Magnussen |
2 | Abu Dhabi 2023 | Collision with Lando Norris |
1 | Saudi Arabia 2024 | Unsafe release |
The penalty from Abu Dhabi 2023 was BS. That was, at worst, a simple race incident.
It seems weird that the driver would get a penalty point for an unsafe release made by the team. I guess there must be a rule that any time penalty carries penalty points
He didn't wait for the team to release him,went in his own when he thought it was clear.... I'm surprised it was only 1 point,let's say the Aston hits him and one or both if the cars veer unto mechanics ...at best you are looking at some light injuries,but it could be much more severe
If he ever will be in real danger of getting a race ban, his or his team mistakes will magically not earn him any penalty points. Just like what happened last time with Gasly FIA is too scared to ban anyone for some reason (my guess is potential bad publicity)