Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko has revealed that Max Verstappen must avoid attracting more penalty points to his Super License in the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix. Verstappen remains just one point away from a race ban, and thus, committing an offense in Montreal could result in a race ban in Austria.
Three penalty points were added to the four-time world champion’s Super License during the Spanish Grand Prix for crashing into George Russell. A potential race ban could further diminish Verstappen’s chances of securing the championship this season. At present, he sits in third place in the Drivers’ Championship with 137 points, 49 adrift of championship leader Oscar Piastri.
An F1 driver faces a race ban if he receives 12 points on his Super License in one calendar year. With Verstappen’s tally now at 11, Marko has cautioned that a potential violation in the next Grand Prix could see Verstappen miss out on the race in Austria.
Looking back at the race in Barcelona, Verstappen could have avoided the three penalty points if he hadn’t crashed into Russell after the safety car restart. What added to Verstappen’s frustration was that Red Bull fitted his RB21 F1 car with new hard tires during the safety car pit stop, which made it difficult for him to get them up to temperature.
Revealing the events that mounted a series of challenges for Verstappen, eventually leading to the penalty points and a 10-second time penalty, Marko explained in his Speedweek Column:
“First, he was given the hard tire even though he didn’t want it. Then, on the first lap, there was this swerve that almost sent him flying. Next, Leclerc drove into the side of his car at a good 300 km/h. That was completely overlooked and very dangerous.
“This naturally made the atmosphere tense. Finally, there was the incident with Russell. And Max, who knows the regulations very well, said he didn’t have to give up his position. But he was told he had to give it back. That was a lot of bitter pills to swallow. On top of that, Russell isn’t exactly his best friend.
“Now he can’t commit any offenses over the next two race weekends, and of course, he’ll be told not to do anything rash. It would be a catastrophe if he couldn’t start in Austria. But we don’t expect that to happen, because it’s certainly not the case that Max does something wrong in every race. After Austria, the first penalty points will be removed.”
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