Why are so few F1 penalty points being given out this year?

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Why are so few F1 penalty points being given out this year?

The guidelines used to assist the FIA stewards with F1 penalty points have changed

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 31 March 2026 10:55

If you have been tuning in to the F1 2026 championship then you may have noticed that the FIA stewards have been handing out fewer penalty points.

In fact, after the opening three rounds of this year's campaign, not a single penalty point has been awarded to any of the 22 drivers on the 2026 grid.

This doesn't stop some from still being at risk of a race ban however, with Haas driver Ollie Bearman the closest given that he has accrued 10 out of the maximum 12 penalty points across the last 12 months.

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And whilst the 20-year-old will need to go carefully out on track until the first of those points expires on May 23, the Brit can take some comfort in the fact that the guidance used by the stewards to determine when to administer penalty points has been tightened up for 2026.

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2026 saw major changes across the sport, with the chassis and power unit rules given a major overhaul in line with the new regulations era.

Not only that but the FIA also released an updated version of their Driving Standards Guidelines (DSG), which were brought in just in time for the sport's new era.

The DSGs act only as a guideline to F1 stewards when deciding when and if to assign punishments and penalty points and are not part of the official FIA regulations.

But they also exist for drivers and their team representatives to take advantage of in defence of their own actions out on track after they have been summoned to see the stewards during a grand prix weekend.

The current list of F1 penalty points cites a number of reasons for the drivers being given them, including, but not limited to, causing a collision, erratic driving and braking, forcing a driver off the track, driving dangerously, making more than one change of direction and failure to comply with red/yellow flag conditions.

However, the revised DSGs mean the FIA are unlikely to give out as many penalty points this season after giving the drivers on the 2025 grid the chance to give their input on the new guidelines at last year's Qatar GP.

Following these conversations, the guidelines now state that stewards will only hand out penalty points in incidents concerning: “dangerous, reckless or apparently deliberate actions resulting in a collision or for other unacceptable or unsportsmanlike behaviour."

This means F1's governing body are less likely to hand out penalty points for crashes or incidents that could not have been avoided, with the stewards approach to issues such as erratic driving or forcing another driver beyond track limits now likely to be more lenient.

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