FIA penalty ruling prompts new Max Verstappen F1 race ban issue

Four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen was recently handed three penalty points after an incident at the Spanish Grand Prix, meaning he now sits just one point away from an official race ban.

His clash with the Mercedes of George Russell in Barcelona has remained a hot topic with no racing until F1 heads to Canada this weekend, but it turns out Verstappen may not realise how lucky he was over the FIA ruling.

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After the pair initially made contact at Turn 1, the Dutchman snapped back over team radio after Red Bull ordered him to return the place to Russell.

Shortly after those instructions, the rivals collided once again, seemingly intentionally from Verstappen's side. The FIA then announced an investigation was taking place before the stewards handed Verstappen a 10-second penalty and three penalty points.

If the 27-year-old had been handed just one more point in Barcelona, he would have been banned from competing in this weekend's Canadian GP. In the modern era of F1 however, no driver has been handed four penalty points for a single incident.

Having said that, just last month in F3 Alpine junior Nicola Lacorte was handed four penalty points, also in Barcelona, for causing a collision with AIX Racing driver Jose Garfias.

Was the penalty for Verstappen's crash too lenient?

Many at the Spanish GP last time out determined that Verstappen's contact with Russell was intentional, with Sky F1 pundit and 2016 F1 champion Nico Rosberg even calling for the Red Bull star to be disqualified from the event.

Whilst the stewards' report declared the collision to be, "undoubtedly caused by the actions of Car 1 [Verstappen]," they did not confirm whether the move was intentional or not, which could perhaps explain what some critics have labelled as the more 'lenient' verdict.

But things could have ended very differently for Verstappen if the incident for F3's Lacorte is anything to go by.

During qualifying for the fifth round of the feeder-series season in Spain, Lacorte's four penalty points came as a result of the stewards decision that: "the Driver of Car 29 [Lacorte] was wholly responsible for the collision."

The FIA investigation into the move was not taken lightly, with the stewards' report stating: "Irrespective of any perceived conduct by GAR [Garfias] in the preceding corners, the actions of LAC on the straight were both ill-judged and unacceptable."

"The Stewards strongly emphasize that retaliatory behaviour (i.e. taking matters into your own hands) has no place in this Championship. Such conduct not only contravenes the regulations but also endangers others, and in this instance, could have resulted in a more serious incident had GAR reacted even marginally later."

The stewards for that verdict were Mathieu Remmerie, Xavier Naves and Natalie Corsmit, the latter who also hails from the Netherlands.

Coincidentally, Corsmit will be making her debut as an F1 steward at this weekend's race in Montreal, where it is vital for Verstappen to keep a clean sheet with a race ban still possible should he add a single penalty point to his name in either Canada or Austria.

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