Gasly adamant he is not dangerous as race ban looms

Ian Parkes
Sunday 6 November 2022 14:30

Pierre Gasly is adamant he is not a dangerous driver despite walking the tightrope of an F1 race ban.

AlphaTauri driver Gasly collected his 10th penalty point this season for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in passing Aston Martin's Lance Stroll during last Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix.

Gasly is now just two points from an automatic one-race suspension, and with nine grands prix still to traverse before the first of his points are wiped off his licence.

"I am quite close to being banned for a race but in my opinion, I don't feel like I have been that dangerous over the last 12 months," said Gasly, who joins Alpine next year.

The French driver was penalised in Spain and again in Austria for causing a collision. In the latter, the also collected a point for exceeding track limits.

READ MORE...F1 drivers' penalty points: Gasly on race ban tightrope

After speeding under a red flag in the now infamous incident during the Japanese GP when there was a crane on track, Gasly collected a further point for falling too far behind the safety car during the race in the United States.

"It would be a shame to get a ban for slowing down too much behind the safety car and a couple of track limits this year," he added.

"They [the FIA] are working on it and probably for next year there will be changes. That is good to hear."

Gasly feels some of the indiscretions that accrue points are wrong, adding: "The regulations say that in case you do dangerous driving, you lose points.

"At the moment, you are losing points for these safety car infringements or track limits and obviously, the penalty for it is a race ban.

"We all agree, and the stewards agree, it is quite harsh so I think they are working on it and should come up with something different for next year."

Informed for the first time after Sunday's race he had collected another point and was sitting on 10, Gasly was far from happy.

“I don’t want to talk [about it]," snapped Gasly. "I don’t want one single question about the penalty. I’m tired of this.”