Whilst Pierre Gasly would not wish the chaos that has been wreaked upon the people of Emilia-Romagna the cancellation of the Imola event means his risk of suffering a race ban as receded significantly.
During his last campaign with Alph Tauri the French driver had accumulated 10 points. This meant just one further misdemeanour would see Gasly banned for one race were he to reach the limit of 12.
Gasly avoids ban in Australia
Pierre was fortunate at the Australian Grand Prix to avoid sanction from the stewards for his part in the penultimate lap pile up that saw the race red flagged for a third time.
Having overshot turn one Gasly returned to the circuit in what many would argue was an unsafe manner causing his Alpine team mate Esteban Ocon to collide with him at full throttle.
Even more strange was the fact that for a less dramatic error at the same restart, Carlos Sainz was penalised five seconds and awarded super license penalty points.
On May 22 Gasly will drop 2 points from his super license falling back to a tally of just 8 remaining. This would require two substantial misdemeanours in Monaco for the French driver to receive a ban now.
Minor violations no longer awarded points
A number of Gasly’s transgressions last season were considered relatively minor like falling too far behind the safety car and track limits violations.
These kind of misdemeanours are now not awarded penalty points which are reserved for violations like speeding under red flag conditions and causing a collision.
Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer had argued at a meeting of the F1 commission early this year that the minor incidents awarded points previously should be wiped from Gasly and any other driver’s license.
However such a rule change would have required unilateral agreement something Szafnauer was unable to secure.
Changes afoot this year in Monaco
Teams “opportunistic” says Szafnauer
“I was in the minority,” Szafnauer said back in March. “There were probably three or four out of the 10 teams that supported it.”
“Some of those who did not admit the reason [why] they are not supporting it was for opportunistic reasons, hoping that something happens to us.”
Gasly can breathe a sigh of relief when he reaches Monaco as the risk of a ban has now receded significantly.
READ MORE: McLaren making big noises
On his 54th birthday, enjoy some Monaco magic from Michael Schumacher#F1 #KeepFightingMichael pic.twitter.com/sNS9byJzPv
— Formula 1 (@F1) January 3, 2023
