The penalty tightrope Verstappen now walks to avoid race ban

This weekend's Canadian Grand Prix marks the first of two consecutive races when F1 world champion Max Verstappen will walk a penalty tightrope after the contentious events of the last race in Spain.

While the 10-second end-of-race penalty that the Red Bull driver received from stewards for colliding with George Russell's Mercedes cost him an immediate and - potentially crucial - nine points in the world championship by dropping him from fifth to 10th in the classification, the further sting in the tail were the three penalty points they added to his F1 super licence.

The significance of that additional sanction was that it moved Verstappen on to 11 points for the last 12-month period - one away from triggering an automatic one-race ban under F1's regulations.

• 'Not right' - Max Verstappen accepts blame for controversial George Russell clash
• When to watch Canadian GP live on Sky Sports
• Got Sky? Watch F1 races LIVE on your phone! 📱
• Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW 📺
• Choose the sports notifications you want! 🔔

Points stay on a driver's licence for one year until they expire but Verstappen does not drop the first of his current points haul until June 30 - a date that comes after the next two races, in Montreal this weekend and then Austria a fortnight later.

"You can never guarantee anything," said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner post-race in Spain when asked about the precarious situation his star driver now finds himself in for the next two events.

"He's just got to keep his nose clean in the next couple of races. Then the first points come off at the end of June."

Verstappen went penalty-free through the first eight races of this season up to Spain - and even longer streaks in the past - so Red Bull will certainly back their four-time champion to strike the right balance again. But there is certainly not much room for even mild misjudgement in wheel-to-wheel combat for the next few weeks given the way the penalty points have racked up for Verstappen in just under a year.

Explaining F1's penalty points system

F1 introduced the penalty points system for on-track rules breaches by drivers from the start of the 2014 season, designed to act as an additional deterrent against being involved in regular incidents on track.

While sporting sanctions - such as time penalties, grid penalties, drive-throughs, and, in the most extreme cases, disqualifications - are among the options available to stewards at grands prix to punish those who are found to be predominantly or wholly at fault for on-track rule breaking, they also have the option to apply penalty points - one, two or three - to a driver's super licence too.

A super licence is mandatory requirement for all drivers to feature in Grand Prix weekends and it's on that which penalty points are applied.

In that respect, it's similar to the totting-up process on standard driving licences for road offences. Like on the road, drivers are banned if they reach the maximum 12 points - which, in F1's case, covers a rolling 12-month period.

The Sporting Regulations state: "If a driver accrues twelve (12) penalty points his licence will be suspended for the following Competition, following which twelve (12) points will be removed from the licence.

"Penalty points will remain on a driver's Super Licence for a period of twelve (12) months after which they will be respectively removed on the twelve (12) month anniversary of their imposition."

How has Verstappen collected his 11 points?

• June 30, 2024 - 2 points - Causing a collision with Lando Norris in the Austrian GP
• October 27, 2024 - 2 points - Forcing Lando Norris off the track at the Mexico City GP
• November 2, 2024 - 1 point - Driving too fast under a Virtual Safety Car in the Sao Paulo Sprint
• November 30, 2024 - 1 point - Driving unnecessary slowly and impeding George Russell in Qatar GP qualifying
• December 8, 2024 - 2 points - Causing a collision with Oscar Piastri in the Abu Dhabi GP
• June 1, 2025 - 3 points - Causing a collision with George Russell in the Spanish GP

Verstappen's first two points from his Austrian collision with Norris expire on the one-year anniversary of the incident, June 30, but the next two after that from Mexico City last year do not come off his tally until the end of October.

That means that Verstappen, even if he avoids any ban-triggering points in Canada and Austria, will stay on nine points for a further nine Grands Prix.

What kind of incidents can trigger a single penalty point?

Race stewards can issue three penalty points for the most serious offences, down to one for lesser incidents.

There is no publicly-available list, or 'menu', for the kind of incidents that trigger each level of sanction, but there are now 11 years' worth of past precedents to provide guidance.

As detailed above, Verstappen has twice collected single penalty points for incidents over the past year - the first for running too fast under the Virtual Safety Car in the Sao Paulo Sprint, the second in Qatar for driving unnecessarily slowly ahead of an oncoming Russell in qualifying.

Russell, coincidentally, picked up the current single point on his own licence in the same Qatar weekend by failing to adhere to the rule which requires a driver to keep a 10 car-length distance behind the Safety Car.

Collisions with other cars have also earned drivers one penalty point in the recent past (Liam Lawson in Bahrain and Miami) - and not only in races.

Aston Martin's Lance Stroll had a single point added to his super licence at last month's Monaco GP for colliding with Charles Leclerc's Ferrari in Friday practice.

Esteban Ocon, meanwhile, was handed a one penalty point in Miami last year for an unsafe pit-lane release when he exited the Alpine garage and went into the side of Leclerc ahead of his laps to the Sprint grid.

Has anyone reached the 12-point limit before?

While several drivers had come close to accumulating 12 active licence points, it was only last season - a decade after the system was introduced - that someone reached the dozen-point marker when Kevin Magnussen did so following a collision with Pierre Gasly in the Italian Grand Prix.

The then-Haas driver missed the following race in Azerbaijan as a result, with Oliver Bearman taking his place for the Baku weekend.

Before the formal system was in place, Romain Grosjean had been the last driver to be suspended for a Grand Prix after causing a massive multi-car first-corner collision at the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix. The Frenchman had also been involving in incidents earlier in the campaign.

Michael Schumacher (two races), Eddie Irvine (three) and Mika Hakkinen (one) were all suspended in 1994 for various misdemeanours, while Nigel Mansell was barred from the 1989 Spanish GP.

Where would Red Bull turn if Verstappen missed a race?

Red Bull, of course, will be hopeful and optimistic that Verstappen, as Horner says, will be able to "keep his nose clean" in Montreal and Austria to avoid this becoming an immediate and unwanted issue for the team.

But were they suddenly required to find a one-off replacement for Verstappen, then one of the two drivers who race for sister outfit Racing Bulls - Isack Hadjar or Liam Lawson - would almost inevitably be called upon to fill in for one weekend next to Yuki Tsunoda.

Such a reshuffle, though, would in turn create a one-off vacancy at the junior outfit to fill.

Japan's Ayumu Iwasa, 23, is Red Bull's more experienced back-up option and has driven in Friday practice sessions for both teams, while British 17-year-old and F2 front-runner Arvid Lindblad would also now be a viable option after the team's long-standing request for a super licence exemption for their protege was granted by the FIA this week two months before his 18th birthday.

Sky Sports F1's Canadian GP schedule

Thursday June 12
8pm: Drivers' Press Conference

Friday June 13
4pm: F1 Academy Practice One
6pm: Canadian GP Practice One (session starts at 6.30pm)
8pm: The F1 Show
9pm: Team Principals' Press Conference
9.30pm: Canadian GP Practice Two (session starts at 10pm)
11.25pm: F1 Academy Qualifying

Saturday June 14
2.10pm: F1 Academy Race One
5.15pm: Canadian GP Practice Three (session starts at 5.30pm)
7.30pm: F1 Academy Race Two
8.30pm: Canadian GP Qualifying build-up
9pm: CANADIAN GP QUALIFYING
11pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook

Sunday June 15
3.50pm: F1 Academy Race Three
5.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Canadian GP build-up*
7pm: THE CANADIAN GRAND PRIX*
9pm: Chequered Flag: Canadian GP reaction
10pm: Ted's Notebook

*also on Sky Sports Main Event

The 2025 Formula 1 season resumes live on Sky Sports F1 with the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime.