The new season has only just begun and already, after just the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix, one Formula 1 race is already one-third of the way towards triggering a race ban
A Formula 1 driver has admitted he needs to read the rules more closely amid the threat of a race ban. At the Chinese Grand Prix alone, the star picked up four penalty points as the stewards took a dim view of his driving standards.
Under current F1 rules, drivers who pick up 12 penalty points in as many months triggers an automatic one-race ban. So far, only one racer has ever fallen foul of it – Kevin Magnussen missed last year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix after amassing too many points on his FIA licence.
But, if he keeps racking up the penalty points at his current rate, Alpine racer Jack Doohan could be the next. The rookie has only race in F1 three times – he debuted in the final race of 2024 – but already he is a third of the way towards the threshold.
The Australian racked up four points across two incidents for which he was punished at the Chinese Grand Prix. The first happened in Saturday’s sprint race when he made contact with a fellow rookie, Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto.
READ MORE: Liam Lawson’s Red Bull future, ‘Japan decision made’, Max Verstappen warning and Yuki Tsunoda commentREAD MORE: Lewis Hamilton stripped of all-time F1 record after being disqualified at Chinese GP
Doohan was given a 10-second time penalty and had two points added to his licence for causing a collision. The following day, in the main race, he was given an identical punishment by the stewards for forcing Isack Hadjar off track while battling with the Racing Bulls driver.
Neither penalty cost Doohan any points – he would have failed to score in both Shanghai races even without the extra seconds added onto his race time. But in one weekend he picked up far more penalty points than he would have liked on his licence and he knows he now needs to be careful.
The 22-year-old said: “I’m going to have to revisit [F1’s driver code of conduct] because I don’t want to be getting penalties on a regular basis. There’s a lot of positives to take forward. I just have to refresh myself, fill in the driver guidelines so I stop having any issues.”
But he may not have much more time to clean up his driving. Doohan is under pressure to retain his Alpine race seat with reserve driver Franco Colapinto waiting in the wings and preparing to take over.
There has been talk of an early-season swap for months now and ESPN reported this week that Doohan is “likely” to be replace by the Argentine “before the European leg of the season”. That portion of the campaign begins in mid-May with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, the seventh round of the season.
Colapinto joined Alpine during the winter with parent team Williams keen to get him on the grid, though they had no space among their own driver line-up to offer him a race seat themselves for 2025. The 21-year-old has also been linked with a move to Red Bull’s junior team with Yuki Tsunoda increasingly likely to replace the struggling Liam Lawson at the main squad, though it is understood that a move for Colapinto is unlikely.
