McLaren boss Zak Brown believes the FIA should review the superlicence points system after Colton Herta failed to secure enough points to make a switch to F1. The American was in talks with Red Bull to join the sister AlphaTauri team in 2023, but a major stumbling block proved to be getting enough superlicence points as he only has 32 points, with 40 the required standard. Herta has competed full-time in IndyCar since 2019 and contested in the Indy 500 the same number of times. By comparison, 2023 Williams driver Logan Sargeant has earned over 40 points through competing in the F3 and F2 feeder series. Brown says that the rules surrounding the superlicence should be looked at for the future, as he believes Herta is "definitely capable of being in F1." "I think the superlicense really just around IndyCar needs to be reviewed, I think it should just be the same as Formula 2," Brown said to media, including RacingNews365.com . "It's a shame Colton Herta isn't in F1, because he's definitely capable. "The thing that I've seen about Mohammad [Ben Sulayem] is he's prepared to challenge rules that are in place, and fix them moving forward."
Superlicence penalty points should be reviewed, says Brown
Pierre Gasly came close to a race ban this year due to accumulating too many penalty points on his licence. Under the current rules, F1 drivers are allowed to accumulate 12 points on their superlicence over a period of 12 months before an automatic one-race ban is triggered. Gasly hit 10 points and will not have them expire from his licence until May next year . Brown says this is another area that should be looked at, given that drivers rarely show that they have driven dangerously. "I do because Lando [Norris] was close two years ago," said Brown when asked if penalty points should be revised. "I can't remember one thing he did that I thought was dangerous." Norris was briefly close to the 12-point limit midway through the 2021 season, which were largely accumulated through flag infringements in practice and qualifying sessions. Brown continued: "I think penalising drivers in the race if they've made a mistake is enough of a penalty, to then put them up against 'You might miss a race' unless it's egregious. "If I just think about the Lando one, I can't think of a single thing he did that was dangerous, yet he was right up against the limit."
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