Guide

Why F1 penalty points almost disappeared in 2026

The 2026 season started with months of races and no penalty points at all. A change in the FIA's driving standards guidelines explains why.

An unusually quiet start

For the first part of the 2026 season, the stewards issued no super licence penalty points at all, even for incidents that would have earned them in previous years. Drivers who started the season with high totals, such as Oliver Bearman on 10, saw their points expire without new ones replacing them.

The first point of the year came at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, when Franco Colapinto received one for failing to slow properly under yellow flags. Points stayed rare through the summer, with only a handful given at the Hungarian and Dutch Grands Prix.

What changed

The FIA updated its driving standards guidelines for 2026. The new wording suggests penalty points should be reserved for dangerous, reckless or apparently deliberate actions that cause a collision, and for other unacceptable or unsportsmanlike behaviour. Ordinary racing incidents can still bring a time penalty, but not necessarily points.

The guidelines are not binding regulations. They are what the stewards refer to when deciding penalties, so in practice they changed how often points were handed out.

What it means for race bans

With fewer points being given, a race ban became much less likely in 2026. Late in the season no driver was anywhere near 12 points. The highest totals were in low single figures.

Points have not vanished entirely, though. The stewards still used them for clear offences, including yellow-flag breaches and avoidable contact. At the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix they gave points to Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson for contact in practice, after a warning to the teams that weekend.

The debate

Supporters of the change say points should mark genuinely dangerous driving, not ordinary racing mistakes, and that the old system made drivers too cautious. Critics argue that a system which rarely gives points no longer deters repeat offences. Whether the FIA keeps this approach for 2027 is one of the stewarding questions to watch.