Pierre Gasly started the 2023 Formula 1 season in the rather perilous position of having 10 penalty points to his name. If a driver reaches 12 penalty points within a 12-month period, they receive an automatic one-race ban and the Frenchman is just two away with his next points set to expire in May. Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer brought plans forward to have points wiped for drivers who earn minor offences to a recent F1 Commission, however the suggestion did not go down well with rivals. “I was in the minority," he told Autosport . “There were probably three or four out of the 10 teams that supported it."
FIA takes relaxed approach
Some of these points accrued by Gasly were through procedural mistakes, such as falling more than 10 car-lengths behind the Safety Car in Austin or exceeding track limits in both Mexican and Austria. Under a new approach by the FIA for 2023, they have been taking a relaxed approach to handing out penalty points for these types of infringes - as experienced by Nico Hulkenberg at the opening race in Bahrain . Gasly would likely not have received the points under this new approach, which is why Szafnauer attempted to get them overturned. He added: “Some of those who did not admit the reason [why] they are not supporting it was for opportunistic reasons, hoping that something happens to us.”
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