Max Verstappen clears his F1 superlicence of all penalty points after George Russell clash. Max Verstappen returns to a clean slate after Spain controversy with Russell.

Back to zero

Max Verstappen no longer has any penalty points on his super licence. Not a single one.

With the arrival of June 1, the final three points on the Dutchman’s record were officially removed. Those points had been issued exactly 12 months earlier during the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, after Verstappen deliberately made contact with George Russell’s Mercedes during the dramatic closing stages of the race.

The incident marked one of the most controversial moments of the 2025 season and represented the culmination of an already tense relationship between the two drivers. Their rivalry had intensified months earlier following disagreements that emerged during qualifying for the previous season’s Qatar Grand Prix.

The collision in Barcelona generated significant debate throughout the paddock and pushed Verstappen dangerously close to a race suspension. The four-time world champion accumulated 11 penalty points out of the maximum 12 allowed on a super licence.

Had he received one additional penalty point, the Red Bull driver would have been forced to miss a Grand Prix. Such a scenario had already occurred during the 2024 Formula 1 season, when Danish driver Kevin Magnussen was suspended for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after reaching the penalty-point limit.

Since that controversial episode, Verstappen has been particularly careful to avoid putting himself in situations that could lead to further sanctions. Race after race, he successfully navigated the following twelve months without receiving any additional penalty points, allowing the previous infractions to gradually expire under Formula 1’s rolling one-year system.

The result is that the reigning champion now finds himself with a completely clean disciplinary record once again.

A different approach to penalty points

It should also be noted that the criteria used by FIA stewards to award penalty points changed significantly at the beginning of the 2026 Formula 1 season.

Under the revised interpretation, penalty points are now generally reserved for actions that are considered genuinely serious, dangerous, or close to being deliberate. In most other situations, stewards prefer to apply the traditional sporting penalties, like time penalties, without adding points to a driver’s super licence.

This adjustment has had a noticeable impact on the championship so far. Through the first five Grands Prix of the 2026 season, no driver has received a single penalty point.

While time penalties continue to be used to punish racing incidents and procedural infringements, the threshold for issuing penalty points has become considerably higher than in previous years. As a result, drivers currently face a reduced risk of building up large totals on their super licences, provided they avoid the type of serious incidents that stewards now specifically target.

For Verstappen, however, the timing is particularly significant. After spending much of the last year operating under the constant threat of a race ban, the Dutch driver can now approach the remainder of the season without the burden of any penalty points hanging over him. It represents a remarkable turnaround compared to the situation he faced after Barcelona in 2025, when another mistake or controversial incident could have sidelined him for an entire race weekend.

One year later, the record has been completely reset. Max Verstappen’s super licence is once again spotless, and the four-time world champion enters the next phase of the season with a clean slate.